Silent in the Grave, by Deanna Raybourn

[tanaise]

"To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching on upon the floor."

Silent in the Grave

That was a fabulous book, more than living up to the promise of its first two lines (it did suffer slightly from the tell-the-characters-but-not-the-reader behavior that sometimes afflicts mystery novels, but redeemed itself by only doing so for a few pages, so it barely matters.) And pretty much everything under the sun was packed into the book, made even more impressive given that it is basically a romantic mystery series set in 1889 or so--all the basic Victorian trappings plus syphilis, homosexuality, gypsies, doctors, poisoning, pornography, talking ravens, fashion, retired prostitutes, music, literature, travel, etc. Granted, very little of that was relevant to the plot--it certainly could have been much shorter--but I think the extra complexity was well worth it. We will have to see if the sequels are as good as it was.

Also, it had a typeface invented for it. Now I want to write a novel just so they will make me a typeface

Comments

[kayselkiemoon.livejournal.com]

all the basic Victorian trappings plus syphilis, homosexuality, gypsies, doctors, poisoning, pornography, talking ravens, fashion, retired prostitutes, music, literature, travel, etc.

that's an impressive array. *g* sounds like fun!
I, too, think that having a typeface invented for one's book is pretty darn cool. I'll have to find this at my store Tuesday.

[sarah-prineas.livejournal.com]

Is that the first line?

If so, it is surely teh awesome.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

Yes, first two lines. I read them and thought, "Wow, that is how you sell a book." And it did not let me down.