veronica speedwell mystery a curious beginning deanna raybourn

The vicar concluded his prayers and gestured to me. Aunt Nell had been the final knotted obligation tying me to England, and I was unfettered once and for all, able to make my way in the world as I chose. She darted off in search of an early cabbage or perhaps a tasty nasturtium, free as the wind itself. A Large Garden White butterfly, common as grass, but pretty nonetheless. “Pieris brassicae,” I murmured to myself. In fact, I was aware of a somewhat disconcerting feeling of euphoria rising within me.Īs if to match my mood, the breeze rose a little, and on it fluttered a pair of pale wings edged and spotted with black. That her death removed my last attachment to childhood did not unduly alarm me as I stood in the quiet churchyard of Little Byfield. Aunt Nell’s death had been neither sudden nor unexpected, and the warmth of our affection had been tepid at best.

I slipped my dry handkerchief into my pocket with a sigh. She had been quite exacting about some things, and elocution was one of them. It was the first time I had noticed the lisp, and I only hoped Aunt Nell would not mind. The vicar murmured the appropriate prayers, his voice pleasantly mellow, his tongue catching softly on each s. Violent weeping would have been in exceedingly poor taste, but Miss Nell Harbottle had been my guardian for the whole of my life, and a tear or two would have been a nice gesture of respect. If you’re a fellow historical suspense enthusiast, keep reading for some wonderful books.I stared down into the open grave and wished that I could summon a tear. And what better way to escape than to run away to a different time period entirely? Three-quarters of the planet’s population at the very least, must have wanted to do just that since the beginning of 2020.

It does not take much effort to come up with an educated guess about the reasons for this newfound popularity – and why it has occurred, more or less, at the same time as the rise of trends as dissimilar as vampire fiction, Game of Thrones–esque fantasy, and cottagecore: humans have always needed escapism, but the past few decades have really increased this need. Combining many of my favorite things (puzzles to solve, history to learn about, and settings that enable me to travel without leaving my couch or building a time machine? I am beyond all in), the genre has grown exponentially over the years, to the point where it has even become conflated with historical mystery – a similar genre for sure, but not identical.

Historical suspense has been a favored genre of mine since I first read The Name of the Rose as a teenager.

Veronica speedwell mystery a curious beginning deanna raybourn