Review: A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn

Title: A Perilous Undertaking
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Genre: mystery, historical
Publisher: Berkley
Date:  January 10, 2017

Veronica Speedwell is back! And I for one, am utterly delighted.  But before I get into that, let me give a little backstory.

Veronica Speedwell is an intrepid young butterfly hunter. Doesn’t sound too exciting does it? But she is so much more than that. Her past, shrouded in mystery, reveals that she is connected much more deeply and highly than she ever imagined. And that’s where we left her at the end of the last adventure.

This time around, she’s being called upon by those highly connected folks to insert herself and her extremely masculine and highly entertaining partner, Stoker into the mix. Someone has died. And the wrong person is being framed for the crime.

This adventure requires Veronica and Stoker to infiltrate an art community and find out who is behind this horrible, ugly, and devastating crime.  Highly dangerous, it’s also peppered with fabulous characters that are full of their own quirks and artful tendencies.

The Veronica Speedwell Mysteries are some of my favorites.  Her first outing, a Curious Beginning, was a fabulous, delightful journey that gave us a new heroine to follow. I loved every moment of it. This time around I enjoyed it almost as much. The setting and the mystery involved a little more sex than I prefer in my books. Well, let me check that. It wasn’t the act of sex itself that ran throughout the book, but the mystery settled in the middle of a group that has unique sexual proclivities. They enjoy and engage in things that aren’t usually on my radar. So I wasn’t as much a fan of this venture for that reason. It was such an integral part of the story that it was hard to skip over it and move on to other things.

However, I still loved Veronica. And her relationship with Stoker is spot on amazing. I love their interplay. The way they handle their situations and each other is delightful. Their interplay, spark, the wit and banter – it’s all everything that someone should hold as a standard when writing a romantic adventure or a RomCom. I loved that part of things. And I enjoyed the revelations that came out about both Veronica and Stoker. Once again, Deanna Raybourn has taken us down a wonderful path that I enjoyed greatly. (Despite the time spent in the odd little grotto club – I could have done without that!)

I am eager and ready for the next Speedwell mystery. It’s going to be hard for me to wait! Please, keep Veronica’s adventures coming!