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Jan 23, 2012

Hannah rated it:

Obviously this book has far more admirers then detractors, (if the ratings are any indication), but I'm damned if I know why.

As far as I can analyse, you might like this book if you enjoy:

1. A surly and charmless hero masquerading as a grade C Sherlock Holmes clone.

2. Forced chemistry (or rather no chemistry) between said surly/charmless hero and an equally vapid "oh-I'm-so-stupid-but-I'm-so-adorable-because-the-writer-tells-you-so" heroine.
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33 comments like (23 people liked it)

Jun 04, 2011

Wendy Darling rated it:

Dear me. This book puts me in a quite a predicament, because I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

First off, the good stuff:

I liked the Victorian world that the author created. Dress, customs, and attitudes are meticulously detailed in the beginning and the book is very well-written. I'm partial to books set in this time period, so it's always a pleasant surprise when the world-building feels authentic to me.

The not so good stuff:

* the mystery i More...

2 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2008

Meredith rated it:

Everybody loves a good international man of mystery, but private enquiry agent Nicholas Brisbane is Just Too Much: he's a prizefighter! he's a violin virtuoso! he's a duke's grandnephew! he's a half-blood Rom AND a psychic (and a floor wax, and a dessert topping . . . .)! Lady Julia Grey -- although at times stupid and inconsistent -- is a more interesting character, because she's believably human. Born into a family of eccentrics, Julia has spent her entire life suppressing herself, until the d More...

1 comment like (17 people liked it)

Aug 23, 2011

Jamie rated it:

The first half of this book is readable enough (a nice opening chapter, in particular) although Lady Julia is written as a modern woman stuffed into a corset and plopped down in Victorian London, where she bemoans racism and classism and is totally cool with her sister's lesbian relationship.

The writing is good for a first novel, if perhaps a bit awkward and repetitive in places. I did like the author's lighthearted style.

The longer I read, however, the more I began to di More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 11, 2011

Juliana rated it:

I absolutely loved this book and thank you to my Goodreads friend Ruth for recommending it! I was a little worried when I first started it, because my expectations had grown so high after reading Ruth's reviews for this book and the following three ones. Thankfully, it completely lived up to - and actually surpassed - my expectations :-). I checked this book out from the library, but will definitely be buying my own copy.

It's told in first-person narration and I found our heroine, Ju More...

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 12, 2011

Allison (The Allure of Books) rated it:

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn is the first book of one of the best series I have ever read. I’ve reviewed other books of the series and talked about the characters on the blog before, but I recently started at the beginning for a reread and couldn’t resist writing a review! So…now I take on the challenge of reviewing one of my favorite books of all time…

I owned Silent in the Grave for a long time before I finally got around to picking it up. I don’t remember why I finally di More...

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jul 31, 2008

Angie rated it:

Finding Silent in the Grave turned out to be one of those beautiful, stumbling across the perfect book to fit your mood moments. Here I am, staring down the barrel of this pregnancy, willing the last few days to pass faster, and this absolutely delightful Victorian mystery proves just the thing to take my mind off the all-too-slowly ticking clock. Even better, it's the first in a series with the second one already out and the third due to hit shelves in March.

Silent in the Grave star More...

10 comments like (11 people liked it)

Mar 23, 2008

_inbetween_ rated it:

I got this book on the strenght of the first page, and even after a third still thought I wanted to read more and more. But despite it probably being one of the better written books I read these months, I'm currently so pissed off at it that I can't bear to read the last few chapters and want to excorcise my frustration.

Is it really just me who sees the "solution" at the very first clue placed? I know it's a matter of pride to claim to have known the killer, but that's not More...

4 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2008

Wealhtheow rated it:

The book opens thusly: "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 upon the floor."

An excellent beginning! It is, unfortunately, all downhill from there. Lady Julia Grey, the narrator and heroine, is a sensible, good hearted gentlewoman far ahead of her time. She's a very readable character, although a bit too anachronistic. I would like to read a book in which she simply goe More...

5 comments like (7 people liked it)

Apr 07, 2008

Jessica rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 27, 2008

Tina rated it:

"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 upon the floor."

Thus begins the compulsively readable mystery by Deanna Raybourne. Lady Julia Grey is a respectable member of the Victorian Britain upper class. Her husband dies during a dinner party. Edward had a congenital heart condition that affected all the men in his family. it was understood that he was likely to die at an ea More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Aug 28, 2010

Miss Clark rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

14 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 06, 2010

Marleen rated it:

Colorful and compelling characters, who are quite intriguing and mysterious, set against a well-built mystery story; what’s not to like?
The author presents us with the most original and interesting characters, who are strong, well defined, and far from the standard cardboard characters we see too often in fiction. I simply love the unconventional family March; they are so endearing and I wish I was one of them. Thanks to Hector March’s progressive thinking he has brought up his children (e More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 21, 2011

Nadine rated it:

Just started this book and so far I am loving it. It's got everything: good writing, interesting plot with just enough twists and turns, three-dimensional characters ... so long as the twists and turns make sense, this one is a winner (well, at least for me, I am easily amused - witness the trashy historical romances I spend so much time with ...). Set in the same time period as the Regency romances I read so often (1880-something), this starts as a murder mystery, but I believe a romance devel More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 27, 2008

Merrimon rated it:

Deanna Raybourne's SILENT IN THE GRAVE, is a hard to put down Victorian mystery, both suspenseful and humorous in its details, that unmasks the consequences of that society's moral, gender and class codes upon individuals within society. As the narrator records the twisting hunt for clues to the identity of the killer, she also discovers her own identity.

Julia Grey's husband Sir Edward collapses, dying in front of her and a house full of guests. Victorian mourning customs come into pla More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 18, 2007

ScottK rated it:

I am sure there have been times when you finished a book and did not want to start a new one right away ....you needed time with the characters from the one you just finished to hold sway in your memory. This is one of those books. I loved it. I posted in a few places the opening line which is why I actually bought it, happily enough that is not the plateau. This book is full of wit and sarcasm, I got a bit misty near the end (but I can be a bit girly at times). All of the characters are really More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 22, 2008

Anne rated it:

This is the first in a currently (hopefully no later) series of Victorian mysteries featuring Lady Julia Grey. In this book she is warned, immediately following the death of her husband, that it was murder. She refused to believe it until some time later, when she was disposing of his belongings, she cam upon one of a series of threatening notes he had gotten. The investigation progresses and she involves herself in a way no proper Victorian matron would. Extremely interesting portrait of th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 14, 2011

Qing rated it:

Quick premise of the book: Edward has always been sickly and when he collapses at his own party (dying shortly afterwards), Julia is approached by a stranger, Nicholas Brisbane, a week after his death claiming that he has been murdered and that her husband had hired him to find out who has been sending him these notes. She doesn't believe him and basically kicks him out of the house.^^^^A year later, she finds one of the death threats he had received. Determined to bring justice to his murderer, More...

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Mar 19, 2009

Karen rated it:

I felt a little ripped off by this book,it's characters and the plot--it is very similar to books by British mystery writer Anne Perry (one of Perry's reoccuring charaters is William Monk, an amnesiac Private Detective. I noticed that Raybourn has a Monk character in her book as well...), with the twisted underbelly side of Victorian England exposed: homosexuality,affairs, STD's and murder amongst the nobility--all lovely delightful stuff! I acutually pegged who the murderer was early on in t More...

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Mar 02, 2009

Jess rated it:

The perfect thing to devour on a sick day. I barely got off the couch, completely diverted by this entertaining blend of historical fiction, mystery, great characters, and snappy dialogue. It's nothing too serious, but the writing has none of those terrible, annoying flaws often found in fluffier books. The characters were all fascinating, there was some great (and completely unresolved) sexual tension, fun descriptions of clothes - and I was really more interested in all of that than in the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 17, 2009

Michelle rated it:

Holy moley with a side of guacamole!! This book grabbed me from the first page and wouldn't let go until I finished it less than 24 hours later!!

Lady Julia Grey just lost her husband and private investigator Nicholas Brisbane thinks he was murdered and wants to find out who dunnit. Julia refuses to believe him but after a year passes, she stumbles upon evidence that in fact he was. Julia must swallow her pride and try to convince Brisbane to reopen the case. As they begin to follow t More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 17, 2009

Lizzy rated it:

When Lady Julia Grey's husband, Edward, drops dead at her feet at a party they're throwing, she isn't surprised. He had suffered the effects of a hereditary heart condition all his life, the same condition which took the lives of his father and grandfather before they were forty. When a strange man named Nicholas Brisbane arrives on the scene and has the temerity to suggest that Sir Edward may have been murdered, Julia is shocked and outraged. Nicholas, a private investigator, insists that befor More...

0 comments like

Feb 08, 2009

Toni rated it:

In 1886, Lady Julia Grey's husband, Edward, dies suddently of a suspected heart problem. During her period of mourning, she is visited by private detective Nicholas Brisbane, who reveals that Edward had hired him to find the source of some threatening letters. This raises the possibility that her husband may have been murdered. Probing into the past, Julia discovers disturbing information about Edward, a side she never really knew or imagined..Intrigued; she joins Brisbane on a quest to solve th More...

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Jan 11, 2009

Nicole rated it:

It is Victorian England and we meet Lady Julia Grey as her ailing husband Edward is writhing in throes of agony upon their music room floor, guests to their gathering looking on. Of course he soon dies and inquiry agent Nicholas Brisbane requests an audience with Julia to tell her that her husband may not have died of his illness but may have been murdered…as he had been hired by Edward to look into threats against his life…but with no proof Julia sends him away. Now a year later, Julia finds More...

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Oct 15, 2011

kaoyler rated it:

"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 upon the floor." That is the opening paragraph of this novel and it grabbed me right away. I'd had recommendations to read Deanna Raybourn's Lady Julia Grey series, and I finally took it to heart. Must say I've been enchanted by this author. This is the first in the series. I like to read her with my iPad simply because she uses some words I l More...

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Sep 29, 2011

Eva rated it:

A captivating book featuring a mad assortment of witty characters set in Victorian England. Sir Edward dies during a dinner party in his home. His death was not entirely unexpected, he had been ill his whole life. In fact his entire family died young, so when a tall, dark and handsome stranger tells his widow, Lady Julia, that he was murdered, she is outraged, especially since she is the prime suspect.

Beset by an elderly aunt nicknamed The Ghoul, who insists on living with her for t More...

0 comments like

Sep 20, 2011

Roxanne rated it:

“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 upon the floor.”

I'm honestly not sure whether I love or hate this book, I think it's somewhere in the middle. The pacing was a bit slow for my tastes and there were paragraphs of useless information, such as childhood stories. One or two is OK but not heaps.

I will say this though, I fell a little cheated in the romance category. They hate More...

0 comments like

Sep 04, 2011

Melonie rated it:

There's a lot going on in this book, and I love it, because it creates a world where you can sit and visit and really look around. Some interactions are important to the mystery, some aren't, but you aren't always sure which is which. In the mean time you can hang out with Julia who is a very strong female lead with amazingly witty lines. I'm jealous of her quick wit, actually. And then there's Brisbane. What an amazing alpha male. I love their interactions together. Oh the sarcasm! Let it flow! More...

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Aug 04, 2011

Amanda rated it:

After reading the adventures of Tasha Alexander's Lady Emily by chance, I though I'd give Deanna Raybourn's famous Lady Julia Grey a try.

This book was exactly what I was expecting -a witty, comfortable Victorian mystery surrounding an intelligent and likable heroine who breaks out of the everyday mold of Victorian society life. I was most impressed by Raybourn's writing skills, especially considering that Silent in the Grave is her debut novel. She handled the plot and characters in a More...

0 comments like

Aug 01, 2011

Mlle. rated it:

The Julia Grey books are hybrid mystery-romances set in the Victorian period, best suited to readers who enjoy both genres. Mystery is the dominant element in each book, but the romance between Julia Grey and Nicholas Brisbane is the backbone to the trilogy. The slow, methodical development of the mysteries is nicely counterbalanced by the tempestuous relationship that develops between Julia and Brisbane. The writing is elegant and rich, very immersive.

SILENT IN THE GRAVE introduces u More...

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