Silent in the Sanctuary: A Lady Julia Grey Mystery
by: Deanna Raybourn
Published by: MIRA Books (January release)
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Reviewed by Leslie Frederick
Lady Julia Grey has been summoned from Italy, along with her two brothers, her new sister-in-law and a handsome new acquaintance, to spend the Christmas holiday in England. The ancestral home, a deconsecrated abbey, will be less then festive however, due to a tragic death, a ghostly apparition or two and a theft that leaves Lady Julia watching everyone at the house party with suspicion.
In addition, Lady Julia is thrown together once again with Nicholas Brisbane, an invited guest of her father’s and a seemingly unwilling partner in Lady Julia’s efforts to get to the bottom of her family’s problems.
To make things even more awkward, Brisbane is engaged to a pretty young thing of “candy box” sweetness, the exact opposite of Lady Julia’s forthright, independent woman. Fans of the Amelia Peabody series of Egyptian mysteries will see a similar repartee that characterizes Amelia and Emerson’s relationship, in Julia and Nicholas.
The gruesome murder of the local curate is anything but straightforward and Lady Julia refuses to sit back and wait for the local constabulary to figure out who is responsible for his demise. Reminiscing about Brisbane’s past support in her efforts to unravel a mystery, leads her to confide in him about her theories, but he admonishes her to let the dead tell their tales to the police only. Undaunted, she sets forth to solve the case on her own, putting herself in mortal danger in the process.
Armchair Interviews says: This book is guaranteed to keep any mystery lover guessing, right up to the last chapter.
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