I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
A Sinister Revenge picks up with Veronica and Stoker after a rather emotionally tense ending for their relationship. I was nervous about how it would be resolved, and whether it would result in a bit too much angst, an issue I struggled with in an earlier installment. However, while things are tense between them, I didn’t feel their relationship had taken too much of a step back, especially as the core of their personalities, with Veronica’s headstrong nature and Stoker’s protectiveness, remain key parts of their dynamic.
Stoker’s brother, Tiberius, makes up the third member of their party, and the mystery is connected to him and his associates. The strongest books for me always involve a connection of either Veronica’s or Stoker’s, so Tiberius is a welcome addition.
The case itself is intriguing, with Tiberius and some of his friends being implicated in a murder from years ago, and now two of these friends also having died in mysterious circumstances. The big reunion party makes for a unique setting for Veronica and Stoker to investigate, with things taking a predictably dire turn. The plot this time around is intricate, and kept me guessing until the final reveal.
This is another engaging installment in the Veronica Speedwell series, and I continue to be excited for the next! If you enjoy historical mysteries with a slow-burning romance subplot, I recommend checking this series out!

Deanna Raybourn enjoys writing series. I have read all of the titles featuring Julia Grey and recommend them. I was very excited to spend time with a title in her series featuring Veronica and Stoker (among others in the rich cast of characters). I can’t wait to read all of the ones that I missed!

Despite not having read other books about Veronica, it was quite easy to become absorbed in this story and its people. It is clear that there were difficulties between the main characters, Stoker and Veronica, at the end of the last book. This one picks up as Veronica and Stoker’s brother search for him in a scenario that recalls The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Tiberius needs the help of these two. Veronica is a lepidopterist while Stoker likes nothing better than dinosaur bones. They also sleuth and that is what is required here.

In a mystery with roots that seem to come from the past, old friends of Tiberius are being killed. This group met at university and became close, even giving a name to their friendship circle. After graduation, the plan was to travel in Europe and spend time in one another’s family homes. When the group was at Tiberius’s family estate an accident (or was it murder?) took place. Now, in the book’s present, others in the group are being killed. Veronica and Stoker need to keep Tiberius from being the next victim as they dig deep into the case.

Raybourn ably brings together her cast of characters, each of whom is a well portrayed individual. The plot crackles. The relationship between Veronica and Stoker crackles as well.

I highly recommend this title to those who love historical mysteries with good characters, especially a strong and atypical woman of her time in Veronica. The plotting was also engaging.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for this title. All opinions are my own.

After reading the previous book in this series I was in a quandary about whether I wished to continue reading the series or not. Throughout the series, I have actively disliked Veronica – probably because the author has made her so ‘woke’ that she is rabid in her thoughts, beliefs, and relationships. There is a point where ‘It is all about me’, becomes just downright dislikable and that is where I was with Veronica. Then, with the hurt she delivered to Stoker in the last book, I was about done with Veronica, but I wanted to see how the author was going to manage to leave Veronica as dislikable as she was and still mend the relationship with Stoker. Therefore, I picked up a copy of this book. Let us just say I was pleased with some of the personal epiphanies Veronica had and the seeming character growth for her. I say seeming because that remains to be seen in future books. No, I didn’t come to like Veronica, but I was pleased to see her growing (seemingly anyway) into a multi-dimensional human where she seemed to realize she wasn’t perfect and actually had flaws.

Viscount Tiberius Templeton-Vane (Stoker’s brother) has received a death threat and he has deduced that two (maybe three) previous murders are connected. Tiberius knew he needed the help of Stoker and Veronica, so he and Veronica tracked Stoker to a remote area in Bavaria. Stoker agreed to return to England and help his brother, but he offered no olive branches to Veronica (YAY! Stoker). He was civil to her, but no matter what overtures she made, he very politely rebuffed them.

Tiberius was once part of a group of friends known as the Sinful Seven – not that they were particularly sinful. Twenty years previous one of those seven died when he fell off an unstable cliff during a house party at Tiberius’s home. As magistrate for the area, Tiberius’s father declared the fall accidental and they all went on with their lives. Only, now, they wonder if perhaps it was murder rather than an accident – and the person threatening Tiberius is now seeking revenge for the death.

Tiberius’s solution is to hold a house party with the same attendees as the house party of twenty years ago. Surely the original murderer is among those attendees – and possibly the current murderer as well. Can they catch not one, but two killers? Everyone is so likable, how could any of them have committed murder? There are plenty of red herrings and clues dropped to let you follow the breadcrumbs. Will you be surprised? Perhaps – perhaps not.

I definitely enjoyed this book more than the last one, so I will recommend it. I did think it was a bit draggy in parts and the narrative was (as always) a bit ponderous and formal. For me, the best part of the story centered around Veronica’s personal epiphanies and her character growth rather than the mystery itself. I will read the next book to see if the growth continues. I hope you will enjoy the story should you choose to read it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Here's a new Veronica Speedwell mystery! Join her and Stoker as they delve into their newest sleuthing case. This one involves Stoker's brother Tiberius who needs Stoker's help as he believes his life is in danger. It's an interesting mix of partygoers who get invited to a dinner party weekend. It didn't disappoint!!!!

This latest installment in the tales of Veronica Speedwell is an exciting and satisfactory addition to one of the best mystery series currently in publication. Although the crime at the center of the story is just as tricky as readers have come to expect from Deanna Raybourn, it’s the evolution of the relationships between her diverse and entertaining cast of characters that make "A Sinister Revenge" shine. Fans of the romance between Veronica and her enigmatic colleague Stoker will not be disappointed (especially given the cliffhanger in the series’ previous novel, "An Impossible Imposter")!

One of my favorite authors. I enjoyed this mystery as much as her previous ones. The mystery was interesting and I like the fact they get out and about and the books don't have the same setting.

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

After the events of their prior investigation, Veronica and Stoker have spent the last few months apart. Veronica has been off exploring the Continent with Tiberius, Stoker's brother, while Stoker has been roaming Bavaria in search of an elusive beast. But when Tiberius suddenly announces his need for Stoker's assistance, the pair go to find him. When they finally find Stoker, he is less than thrilled, but Tiberius lures him back home with the promise of preparing an iguanodon fossil for a very special dinner party: one Tiberius is sure will end in his death.

When Tiberius graduated from university, he and his group of friends--dubbed the Seven Sinners--took a tour around the Continent. They spent time at each other's homes, getting into mischief. The group ended their trip with a stay at Tiberius's grand manor, but one of the members tragically died. Now, two other Sinners have died under mysterious circumstances, and Tiberius has received a threatening message stating he's next. Can Veronica and Stoker put their past tiff aside to help Tiberius before it's too late?

It's no secret that this is my favorite series. I never want it to end, and would gladly read a hundred more books about Veronica and Stoker and all their antics. One of my favorite things about these books is their writing. I love how Raybourn tells a tale and the vocabulary she uses. It always paints such a vivid portrait of what's going on. That said, I was a smidge disappointed with this installment. I found the first half very slow and didn't feel like the plot hit its stride until around the sixty percent mark. I figured out one part of the plot twist within the first few chapters, but the overall reveal was still satisfying. I also enjoyed getting more of a glimpse into Stoker's childhood and his relationship with his siblings. I was also relieved that he and Veronica seemed to have settled their differences. I love how much deeper their bond grows with each book, and I will never stop saying how much I love them together. So, while this wasn't my favorite of the series thus far, I still enjoyed it and will be impatiently waiting for the next book.

After being slightly disappointed in book 7, I’m so happy that this one was a vast improvement. It was overall more fun than the last one. Not as “exciting” as previous ones, but that worked for this plotline.

If anything, the way this story was told, it felt a bit like a classic Agatha Christie novel. The cast of characters/suspects all together in one set location, it’s a classic mystery plot device and it’s one of my favourites.

So if the previous book left you set in a state of melancholia, fret not! This one was a lot more enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Pub for this earc

It looks like I’m the only one out there who didn’t enjoy this book as much as the others?

We’ve been with these characters for 9 books now. And the way last book ended, I definitely expected some kind of BIG moments between Veronica and Stoker. And it started off so well??? Stoker actually reminds Veronica how little she does for this relationship and that whole storyline is completely forgotten for most of the book until, guess what, Veronica shows up with two lines of poetry and Stoker takes her back????? No thank you. That’s not Him making her WORK for it. Making her show him what he means to her.

And here’s the thing. The mystery was not bad in the book. But the fact that all this was is the mystery completely took away from all the relationship building we saw in previous books

Veronica Speedwell is back, this time to help Stoker's brother recreate (and then survive) a house party made up of the same guests who were present when another of their number was killed many years ago. At least, as many of those same guests who are still alive themselves, as it's clear someone is going after them one by one. This one has Veronica doing some self-reflection on her tendency to maintain emotional distance from her nearest and dearest, and a great cast of supporting characters.

1889: Lepidopterist Veronica Speedwell and natural historian Stoker Templeton-Vane are ‘bribed’ by Stoker’s elder brother, Tiberius, to discover who is sending him death threats. Twenty years before, Tiberius had belonged to the Seven Sinners, not that (he claims) they did much sinning. But as young, landed Cambridge gentlemen, the group did undertake a Grand Tour to round out their education, culminating at the Templeton-Vane ancestral home of Cherboys. As it’s situated on the Devon Jurassic Coast, the same coastline (in Dorset) which made Mary Anning famous for her ichthyosaur discovery, it wasn’t surprising that the crumbling cliff coughed up a dinosaur skeleton. Lorenzo d’Ambrogio, one of the Sinners and a natural historian, thought the bones were his claim to fame but, sadly, the ocean laid claim to them and his life.

Now, someone wants revenge and has already murdered two of their compatriots. Tiberius arranges a reunion at Cherboys for the remaining two members and their spouses, with the aim of confronting the killer. And the carrot dangled in front of the understandably reticent Stoker who has, during various investigations, been stabbed, shot, garrotted, drugged, and half-drowned? A gift of the life-sized model of a Megalosaurus, originally built for the Great Exhibition. And predictably, what Stoker won’t do for his brother he will do for a dinosaur!

My first meeting with Veronica Speedwell was everything I expected. I devoured Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey novels, most particularly the series’ sultry male protagonist, and Stoker comes a close second. At his brother’s behest, he lovingly repairs the Megalosaurus in order to hold the reunion dinner, and it was a strange feeling indeed, to be dining inside the belly of a dinosaur. Settings are well drawn, dialogue is spot on, humour intermixed with the seriousness of the crimes. I look forward to the next adventure.

Veronica and her lover Stoker are at odds when the story begins, but they reunite to help Stoker's oldest brother Tiberius who has received some newspaper clippings about the deaths of some of his old friends and a note saying he's next.

So, Veronica and Stoker leave Bavaria and head to Cherboys, the seat of the Templeton-Vanes, where Tiberius has planned a gathering of all the survivors of the Seven Sinners - a group of young school friends who made a Grand Tour upon leaving school.

That long-ago tour had ended at Cherboys and fell apart after the death of one of the seven - Lorenzo d'Ambrogio when it was supposed that he fell off a cliff during a storm while trying to excavate a fossil. There were rumors, quickly covered up, that the death had been murder.

Now, someone is killing the survivors as vengeance for Lorenzo. One of the seven had died years earlier at the hands of Natives when he was there as a missionary to convert them. The two others were supposed accidental deaths and the subject of the clippings Tiberius received.

Veronica and Stoker, though estranged in their romance, are united in wanting to keep Tiberius alive. They are still competitive and make a bet on who will solve the mystery first.

Arriving at Cherboys are James MacIver and his wife Augusta and Count Pietro Salviati and his much younger wife Beatrice. Also attending as they did during the fatal houseparty are neighbors Doctor Timothy Gresham and his spinster sister Elspeth. Veronica is convinced that one of them is the murderer and Stoker agrees except he thinks the women are less likely to be the villain.

And when young Beatrice dies of strychnine poisoning, finding the killer gets much more urgent.

I really like the time period and the references to actual people like Mary Anning and Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. I like the characters especially Veronica who brave and independent face hides a fear of losing her independence. Stoker is more willing to risk his heart, but as a man in Victorian times, he has much less to lose.

The mystery was well-done and the clues were there if somewhat obscured since story told from Veronica's viewpoint with all her prejudices and eccentricities.

Fans of the series won't want to miss this episode.

lepidoptery, historical-figures, historical-novel, historical-places-events, historical-research, thriller, romantic, murder, mystery, myths-legends, family-dynamics, family-drama, family, steampunk, dogs, adventure, relationships, relatives, secrets, women-sleuths, Victorian England, friction, friendship, siblings, snarky, series, threats,*****

Another terrific read and addition to a beloved series even if a little less verbal jousting between Veronica and Stoker. The mystery is well done with all its twists and diabolical red herrings. I LOVE this series and this newest addition!
I requested and received an EARC from Berkley Publishing Group via NetGalley. Thank you!

3.75 stars

This series is always adventurous fun. This time out, butterfly expert and world traveler Veronica Speedwell and her scientist lover (although currently slightly estranged) Stoker have to delve into the past to assist Stoker's brother. An accidental (or was it?) death from out of the past comes back to haunt the group of young men and women who were present. Several of the group have met untimely deaths, and the remainder are getting threats.

Stoker is still smarting from the secrets Veronica kept from him during their last outing and is keeping her at a distance. But they must work together to keep Stoker's brother from becoming the latest revenge victim and to solve the mystery.

Not quite as much banter as usual between the main characters since they are somewhat on the outs, but still a great deal of fun. Veronica and Stoker send off a lot of sparks and are entertaining to watch. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I so enjoy this series and spending time with Veronica and Stoker. I really appreciate that even though this is book eight we are still seeing character growth and the mysteries have not become mundane and boring. If you have not yet tried this series you really should.

I just adore how independent Veronica is, especially because she lives in a time when women were not allowed all that much freedom. She can also be sarcastic, but also makes spot on comments about people and society. Because of the rift that happened between her and Stoker in the last book, she does spend much of her time alone trying to solve this mystery. I loved how baffled she was over Stoker’s reaction that she hadn’t really been married after all, and when she finally got it I was so happy for her! I also liked that she realized that she could love Stoker and not necessarily lose her independence because of that.

Because Veronica did most of the sleuthing on her own, we didn’t see that much of Stoker, and I did miss their usual repartee. But the few times they do get together it was wonderful. We also saw a bit of growth in Stoker, through his relationships with his brothers. And I think he came to terms a bit more with his past relationship with his father. I loved that we got to see more of his younger brother Merryweather. He was such a dear and so different from his bold and brash older siblings.

This was also an excellent mystery. There were some great clues and twists, but I especially loved all of the red herrings that led me to one particular suspect. I was totally convinced they were the culprit until they weren’t. Many of the guests at the party were fun and interesting and made for a lively chase to figure out who the murderer was.

The writing is excellent, as it always makes me feel like I am immersed in Victorian England, through everyone’s manners and dialogue. The setting was also nicely described. There are also some references to English history, especially concerning Mary Anning and fossils found in England during this time period. They even get to dine inside a Waterhouse sculpture! What fun!

This is a great addition to the series and I really hope not the last. I so enjoy these characters and the mysteries are divine. I really must look into this author’s backlist, she has some other historical mysteries that look interesting and those should keep me busy until the next Veronica Speedwell comes out.

I spent a chunk of time looking up the historical details from this book. I already love the characters and the setting and the mysteries and those historic details gave me an extra appreciation for the time and place where Veronica and Stoker live. I sometimes spend more time thinking about what they didn't have in the past than realizing how many amazing things they DID have.

This time, Stoker's brother Tiberius has asked for their help. Friends from his younger days, members of a group that described themselves as The Seven Sinners, are dying. The obituaries that he's received in the mail make him suspect foul play, and that he may be the next target. Their investigation takes place at the family estate, which means we get to learn more about Stoker's childhood and his relationships with his brothers.

Another snappy winner from the dependable Raybourn, whose effervescent characters never fail to charm. What a pleasure to check in with these old friends, er, characters, again, and see what they'll get up to this time!

A Sinister Revenge
by Deanna Raybourn
Pub Date: March 7, 2023
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC.
Veronica must find and stop a devious killer when a group of old friends is targeted for death in this new adventure from the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Deanna Raybourn.
This is the eighth book in the series and I loved it. Although I was hoping for more angst after the way the seventh book ended.
It didn't really pick up for me till the second half. Possibly because the lack of banter among the characters?
4 stars

"Veronica must find and stop a devious killer when a group of old friends is targeted for death in this new adventure from the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award - nominated author Deanna Raybourn.

Veronica's natural-historian beau, Stoker, has been away in Bavaria for months and their relationship is at an impasse. But when Veronica shows up before him with his brother, Tiberius, Lord Templeton-Vane, he is lured back home by an intriguing job offer: preparing an iguanodon for a very special dinner party.

Tiberius has received a cryptic message - along with the obituaries of two recently deceased members of his old group of friends, the Seven Sinners - that he too should get his affairs in order. Realizing he is in grave danger but not knowing why, he plans a reunion party for the remaining Sinners at his family estate to lure the killer out while Veronica and Stoker investigate.

As the guests arrive and settle in, the evening's events turn deadly. More clues come to light, leading Veronica, Stoker, and Tiberius to uncover a shared past among the Sinners that has led to the fatal present. But the truth might be far more sinister than what they were prepared for."

Time to cheer, the new Deanna Raybourn is here!

I discovered this series last year and I was excited to see the latest installment on NetGalley. I was curious to see what would happen with Veronica and Stoker after the way the last book ended, and I was satisfied with how that turned out. The mystery was an interesting take on an English house party murder mystery, with the added layer that the original mystery took place 20 years before the events of the book and is only just coming to light. I got just what I was expecting from this - snark and smarts from Veronica, a few nice red herrings, and the appropriate angst from Stoker. Another solid installment in this fun series.