Linda S. (Ladyslott) reviewed on 3/10/2008 + 113 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

I love opening sentences that grab you from the start and make you long to curl up and just read away. Silent in the Grave has such a sentence: "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."

Silent in the Grave is a Victorian mystery set in London. Lady Julia Grey's husband has died of the heart disease that has killed many of the males in his family. About a year after Edward's death Lady Grey finds out that Nicholas Brisbane was hired by her husband to discover who had been sending him very threatening letters and that Mr. Brisbane suspects the death was murder. Together Julia and Brisbane set out to discover the truth behind Edward's demise.

Although this is a mystery, it is also the story of Julia Grey's growth as a person of independent spirit and mind. A proper Victorian Lady she faces some unpleasant truths about her husband and her life that change her into a person with her own personality and not the one she is âsupposed' to have. The budding relationship between her and Nicholas Brisbane does not proceed in the usual and rather clichéd way either. Although I suspected some of the parts of the mystery, many of them were a complete surprise. The story was well plotted and all the characters were nicely fleshed out and believable. The last line of the book is the perfect set-up to the next book Silent in the Sanctuary. I can't wait to read of the further adventures of Lady Julia Grey and the brooding and mysterious Nicholas Brisbane.

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