TITLE: Silent in the Grave
AUTHOR: Deanna Raybourn
COPYRIGHT: 2007
TYPE: Mystery
PAGES; 512
SERIES: yes first in a series

REASON FOR READING: Everyone kept talking about it and hey I wanted to join in. Renee actually was the first to suggest it.

Summary : {From Goodreads}
These ominous words, slashed from the pages of a book of Psalms, are the last threat that the darling of London society, Sir Edward Grey, receives from his killer. Before he can show them to Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent he has retained for his protection, Sir Edward collapses and dies at his London home, in the presence of his wife, Julia, and a roomful of dinner guests.
Prepared to accept that Edward's death was due to a long-standing physical infirmity, Julia is outraged when Brisbane visits and suggests that Sir Edward has been murdered. It is a reaction she comes to regret when she discovers the damning paper for herself, and realizes the truth.
Determined to bring her husband's murderer to justice, Julia engages the enigmatic Brisbane to help her investigate Edward's demise. Dismissing his warnings that the investigation will be difficult, if not impossible, Julia presses forward, following a trail of clues that lead her to even more unpleasant truths, and ever closer to a killer who waits expectantly for her arrival.

THOUGHTS/OPINION:
This book takes place in Victoria England which was a selling point for me. Anything during that time period is interesting. Add in that its not your typical romance and I was hooked. The book is 1st person POV of Lady Julia Grey and it starts off immediately with her husbands death. A death she assumes is from natural causes b/c after all Edward had a bad heart. During her year of mourning she comes to believe that he might have been murdered. At first this book started off really slow for me. And there were a few times I was tempted to put it down. However, as the mystery became deeper and deeper I found I couldn’t put it down.

Things I enjoyed:
-While the book was slow we did learn a lot about Julia Grey and I enjoyed that. Watching her grow into the woman she always was but didn’t realize was an interesting sub-plot
- I liked the mystery behind Nicolas Brisbane he was a fascinating character that I enjoyed learning about. I had hoped that Nicolas and Julia might end up together but alas this is a mystery not a romance so that didn’t happen.
-The mystery itself wasn’t too complicated until the end when extra pieces that fit together were thrown in. Usually I don’t like this but it worked really good for this plot.

Things I didn’t care for:
-Like I stated before this book moves really slow so unless there is something there that holds you interest you have a long way to go before the mystery is solved. Sometimes that got a bit old and I found myself skimming parts.
-The March family was really odd while some of it made sense some of them made me want to pull my hair out.

Are you keeping it or passing it on? This is a library book. If I read the second and enjoy it I might consider buying the series. But for now it would be a pass

SCORE: 7 out of 10

Anything Else: This is a good first book and sets up the characters well
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100+ Book Challenge

41 / 100 books. 41% done!

1st in a series Challenge

10 / 12 books. 83% done!

WOW I still don't know what it is about this book that sucked me in. Maybe it was the story, or the characters or that it was in 1st person POV but something about this story sucked me and I didn't even realize it was doing it. I have to say the first half moved so slowly that I was a bit surprised I hadn't given it up yet. And then I realized by the last half that I couldn't give it up. But for reasons I don't yet understand.

Worse I just requested the next one in the series LOL I'm surprised and trying to decide if this is a wise decision or not. However, I will say if you like Victorian England and/or like mysterys you will enjoy this book. The first one sets up the characters and that might be why it moved so slow while the others hopefully should move faster.

The mystery was generally good I didn't know who did it until the end which is good and made sense. In a way I feel bad for Julia (I will not explain that yet) Formal review to follow on challenges site within the next week or so.

I don't know about this book. There is something that is keeping me reading and yet something is holding it back from being one of thos OMG this is the best books ever. I can't tell what either reasons are.
I am about 1/2 of the way through. The first part was rather slow for me it took a while to get around to the main point. Now don't get me wrong it starts off right off the bat with Lady Julia Grey's death but now we have gone a year (summed up) without anything and then BOOM she finds a letter that threatened her husband.
She ignored the PI that tried to tell her it might have been murder the year before but now she wants to find the killer after a year... I'm just not buying it I guess or maybe it's the character Lady Julia herself. She is a "I want to be normal, I long for it, but..." kind of gal and I understand a lot of it but something about her isn't sticking with me. Its not rubbing me raw but its just not making me want to learn more about her. I will say the only character I am even remotely interested in is the PI and only b/c I want to know why his "Headaches" are so bad and what they, Julia and him, would be like together.
I think so far the only question that has me hanging on is: Will they hook up? Will there be more action? Will she ever discover who she is? And is there really a murder plot here at all or are we just chasing straws...