I liked the book, but the problem was I should have read her previous books in the series.
This was nice mystery with historical romance twist, but again, because I did not read her previous book - that got me a bit confused.
I would recommend it for sure if you start from the beginning!
Still loved it!

I received this from Netgalley.com for a review.

Fourth in series, Sarah Bain and her friends Lord Hugh Staunton and Mick O'Reilly are crime scene photographers for the Daily World newspaper.

I liked the characters, interesting police procedural based in 1800's London. I'll have to go back and start the series from the beginning.

3☆

1890 London. The crime scene photograhers of Sarah Bain, Lord Hugh Staunton and Mick O'Reilly are sent by the Daily World to the banks of the Thames, where a female body has been found. Sarah soon realises that it she is still alive and is rushed to hospital. When she finally wakes up she has amnesia. Thankfully due to the newspaper article three viable possiblities present themselves as to her identify, but which is the correct one. But the investigation is still ongoing into her attack, and the trio soon find themselves in trouble.
Told from Sarah's point of view, which didn't really help the pacing of the story, and is the main character which I can't seem to take to. But this is an enjoyable enough Victorian mystery.

There's no exhilaration like facing death and surviving.

Just ask Sarah Bain and her band of friends. It's June of 1890 in the East End of London down the dark streets of Whitechapel. Murder and mayhem line these streets and set a whisper to one's ear. Don't dally too long on a solo trip. Those long shadows on the walls near the alley do belong to someone........

Sarah is employed by the Daily World newspaper as a photographer with her street-wise fourteen year old assistant, Mick. Lord Hugh Staunton, banished from high society, accompanies Sarah as she photographs gruesome crime scenes for the morning edition of the news. Her fiance, Detective Sargeant Thomas Barrett, serves on the Whitechapel police department. Needless to say, he becomes exasperated at the constant danger that Sarah finds herself in.

And trouble, literally, finds Sarah near the dock with camera in hand. A young nude woman lays injured in the darkness. After covering her up, Sarah takes photos of her and this female stranger becomes noted as Sleeping Beauty. Three different families claim her as their missing loved one even though her facial injuries are severe. Each holds a possibility.

Laura Joh Rowland presents another Victorian mystery with plenty of zig and zag in the making. Although #4 in the series, it can be read as a standalone. Rowland knows how to keep you guessing and layers her story with multiple threads. Her character of Sarah is grandly intelligent with a steel backbone for living on her own without family. Rowland sticks to time and place without infusing outlandish modern attributes to her characters. You'll feel the Victorian atmosphere with Whitechapel front and center. Quite the read, indeed.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Crooked Lane Books and to Laura Joh Rowland for the opportunity.

We're back in 1890 London with our band of investigative journalists spurred on by Sarah, their photographer. They work closely with the London police and report to the Daily World newspaper.
In this exciting new installment Sarah and her crew find a body of a woman half dragged into the river Thames, her face cut up beyond recognition. When Sarah starts taking pictures she finds the woman still alive. The group rushes her to hospital and open an inquest into her identity.
Three possible family members show up to claim our Jane Doe, who herself can't remember who she is and doesn't recognize any of the visitors. Or does she?
The story is complex yet easy to follow, the characters fun to be with, all set in a smog filled industrial environment and moving at a gripping pace.
Only nearer the end do the pieces of the mystery fall into place.
Although part of a series, this book can easily be read as a stand alone.

Thank you Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this book and it is part of a great series. Sarah and friends have a new mystery to investigate “Who is this woman who has been dubbed Sleeping Beauty”? and who wanted her dead?
Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

: historical-novel, historical-research, amateur-sleuth, murder-investigation, mutilation

This is a book 4, works as a stand alone, and instigates the curiosity to read earlier books in the series AFTER finishing this one. Sara is a press photographer and investigator in the Victorian era and is ably assisted by friends Hugh (a disgraced peer), and former street urchin, Mick, as well as fiancé Detective Barrett. At first, the victim is presumed dead, but Sara discovers that the battered and naked woman with her face all slashed is alive and comatose. Police help get the victim to hospital and it is later discovered that she has no memories of self let alone the event that brought her to this state. The investigation is further ordered by the editor of the newspaper they work for, and Detective Barrett is also on the case. Good investigation, a look into the social aspects of the time, and a bit of romance as well. I loved it!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

Thankyou to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and the author, Laura Joh Rowland, for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of The Woman In The Veil in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
I thought this book provided a good read. The storyline was well written with compelling characters. I was hooked from the start. 3.5 stars.
Really enjoyable series. Worth a read.

This is the first book I’ve read by Laura Joh Rowland, and although the story is 4th in the Victorian Mystery Series, I had no trouble following along.

This book really kept me on my toes. There was so much going on, not only with the mystery of the “Sleeping Beauty” and trying to determine her identity and what happened to her, but also the underlying story of Sarah and her father who was presumed to be missing or dead. There was so much more to her family that even she didn’t know, and I liked that segue from the main story. I really enjoyed all of the characters too and felt they all played an integral part in the building the storyline.

If you love suspenseful mysteries, then this book is right up your alley!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3043306155

This is the fourth of a series of Victorian mysteries by this author and I was at a disadvantage for not having read the others. Two themes concerning the life of the main character Sarah Bain (particularly the disappearance of her father accused of murder) and the link between the three amateur detectives with the Jack the Ripper deaths crop up quite often and would have been helpful to have read before.
However it's not a bad mystery with a definite American slant on life in Victorian London (and probably why the strong association with the world renowned Ripper murders which continues to fascinate) There are thick fogs, loose women walking the alleys of Whitechapel and strange links to mistaken identities with policemen in Black Marias and Inspector Reid of the Yard still seeking revenge for not solving those dastardly murders of the past.
Sarah Bain is the gutsy photographer getting into criminal scrapes with her assistants, Mick O'Reilly (a past young street urchin) now guided to solve not commit crime and also getting himself an education. There is also the posh Lord Hugh Staunton who takes them under his wing in his posh house (with valet) and is having a notorious homosexual relationship with the Tristran (an Roman Catholic priest) and son of wealthy banker who threatens to disinherit him.
It's all a bit Oscar Wilde meets Sherlock Holmes but the plot is a lively one to unravel. The Sleeping Beauty idea of a woman found mutilated but not dead who cannot be clearly identified and is then tracked down by three plausible people and families who want to take her back casts the suspects across a wide field. I liked the character of Sarah's fiance Thomas Barrett the detective struggling to keep in the Inspector's ggod books yet doing his utmost to ensure his suspicions are aided by the helpful trio.
Some of the language seemed distinctly modern (was there really "hazard pay" in the 19th century? but policing was still in its infancy so unorthodox practices could be excused in the manner of fighting crime and seeking justice.
The final scene of mayhem and murder was almost a bit too overdone with dramatic effect and the way Sarah and far too many covered some illegal conclusions to make a happy unending might I sense alert once more the antennae of Inspector Reid.
However it rattles along and is quite fun!

The Woman in the Veil A Victorian Mystery by Laura Joh Rowland is Historical Mystery Fiction that will leave you wanting more. Rowland sets her scenes well, not mincing words so that you can almost see the London mist or the rat man with his Terrier out hunting. This story is an on the edge mystery complete with thrills and adventures. I enjoy how the settings, time, place and characters are so real historically. Old secrets and eccentric characters are the norm. I was hooked on her Victorian Mystery Series with the first book The Ripper‘s Shadow in 2017. Rowland‘s series does not have to be read in order but the reader will have a better understanding if they are. Dark secrets are revealed and mysteries persist. I can’t wait for the next book.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I appreciate the opportunity and thank the author and publisher for allowing me to read, enjoy and review this book. 5 Stars

This book is part of a series, of which I wasn't aware, featuring a cast of characters that work together and against each other in each book. This one was just kind of fun, a little bit of fluff reading, but not something that would make me want to delve into the whole series. Set in the Victorian era, a woman is found with her face slashed and bruised all over by our intrepid reporter protagonist, Sarah, and her sidekicks Mick, Hugh, and eventually her fiancé DS Barrett. They think she's dead initially but then discover she's barely hanging on to life. Once she awakens, she claims to have amnesia and can't remember who she is. The book then becomes a race to identify her, and her attacker, before Barrett's boss, Reid, can land them in potentially fatal danger. Enjoyable read but not something I plan on pursuing.

I am not sure why this book didn't fully work for me. I think maybe I have just read too many similar books that I liked better. This is a solid, okay for me, it was a well paced and descriptive historical mystery. I guess that that's the point it was all just ok, it didn't really bring anything exciting or new but there was nothing wrong with it either.

The mystery itself was pretty good, but I was more invested in the side characters than the main character of Sarah. The mystery of "sleeping beauty" found along the shore naked and mutilated, but alive, is the center of this story. Sarah and her crew take it upon themselves to find the culprit and also determine her identity. There a few side plots that are interesting, but overall the story tends to lag a bit until the very end. The epilogue sets up an intriguing story, but I don't know how much the author is going to delve into it.

Fourth in a series, The Woman in the Veil continues the current trend of mysteries set in the Victorian era and featuring remarkably liberated female detectives and the men who assist them.

The story is well-plotted and begins with a horrifying event - the discovery of a naked woman with no face left for dead on the banks of the Thames. Crime scene photographer Sarah Bain and her partners Hugh and Mick are on site to get photos for the newspaper. When Sarah discovers the woman is alive, she sets in motion a complicated, sometimes terrifying set of events that will leave you with a pounding heart at the end.

Rowland is a capable writer who has delivered a highly readable, engaging, and tightly plotted mystery that will appeal to fans of Deanna Raybourn and Tasha Alexander. Recommended.

When a woman is discovered badly beaten and barely clinging to life,her face slashed, Sarah and her team of news people happen to be on the scene. The woman, whose face is concealed by bandages also has amnesia. When 3 family's come to see if she is there missing loved one she is finally identified but Sarah and her team suspect something else is going on.
A fun whodunit type of book although not historically correct but a cozy mystery with lovable characters.

These books are always a little darker than my usual reads, but I really like them. Reid is a nasty piece of work but Barrett, Sarah, and her friends Hugh and Mick are an interesting group and I like seeing how they are going to solve the mystery and stay out of Reid's clutches. I had forgotten what was up with Ripper case so had to go back and re-read that book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Very enchanting story with a good mix of scary. I was constantly changing who I was suspecting or rooting for. This is an emotional (in a good way) rollercoaster. You will love the ride. I now want to read the first 3 books, and I am looking forward to the next one as well. Great job!
I received a free copy from the publisher on Net Galley. All opinions are my own.

This Victorian mystery was a lot of fun and kept me guessing right up to the end. Wonderfully creepy in all the right spots. Looking forward to the next book in the series!

I honestly thought book 3 was the best, and maybe it was, but this newest Victorian Mystery hits all the right notes. I had no idea who the villain was, but that’s not surprising since the mystery was almost too sensational to be believed. This book answered a lot of questions that have been posed over the series while leaving the door open for future adventures. And fans of the romance element will be pleased, I think.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.