A Curious Beginning
Deanna RayBourn
A Review
Victoria Speedwell is a self-taught student of natural history with lepidoptery (butterflies) being her specialty. She was also the most dangerous woman in all of England - and she did not know why.
It would take the help of her new friend, Revelstoke Templeton-Vane, know to his friends as “Stoker”, and others - some to be trusted, others less so. Set in the turn-of-the-century (i.e. 1900) England, I repeatedly expected to see Sherlock Holmes stepping out of the shadows. Thankfully, he never did, making Ms. Speedwell and her friends a suitable group of detectives on their own.
The book first appears like a good detective novel, but turns into a well-written piece of historical fiction that occasionally drove me to Wikipedia to connect its characters and events with the actual circumstances of the era. The interweaving of this book’s plot and actual history was not quite as complete as I have seen in some previous works, but it was sufficiently well-done to make for an interesting and lively story.
For those with an interest in English history and culture this piece of fiction may just fill the reader's interest. I know it did mine.
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This review is based on a free electronic copy provided by the publisher for the purpose of creating this review. The opinions expressed are my own.
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