It's
the autumn of 1890, and almost a year has passed since—much to their
surprise—Lady Julia and Nicholas became parents. Just as the couple begins to
adapt, a solicitor arrives with a strange bequest. Nicholas, it seems, has
inherited a country house—but only if he and his family are in residence from
All Hallows' Eve through Bonfire Night.Neither Lady Julia nor Nicholas is likely to be put off by local legends of ghosts and witches, and the eerie noises and strange lights that flit from room to room simply intrigue them. Until a new lady's maid disappears, igniting a caper that will have explosive results…
I adore the
Lady Julia mysteries in a way that defies attempting to explain it like a
rational human being. Let’s just leave it at this: they are wonderful books and
if you haven’t read them yet then you need to, because Raybourn is one of the
best writers I have had the pleasure of reading. This series of books found me
quite by chance when I had finished reading Gail Carriger’s Parasol
Protectorate Series and wanted something similar. Amazon, in its infinite
wisdom suggested I read these, and I have never looked back.
They are
brilliantly constructed mysteries with a wonderful heroine at their heart, a
broodingly acerbic hero and a cast of excellent characters that make these such
a pleasure to come back to. With all that in mind, when the news came out that Deanna
Raybourn was parting from her publishers and the chances of another Lady Julia
novel had just dropped to virtually non-existant, I was devastated. I love
these books and I had hoped to get just one more book to tie up some more ends
that had been left. Instead we got the novellas, and whilst I was initially
hesitant, Raybourn has done a truly spectacular job of not only telling more of
Julia’s story through the four novellas, but also weaving in elements of it
into her three novels set in the twenties. Between them we’ve been given a very
good idea of where Julia was heading and what happened to her after the events
of ‘The Dark Enquiry’.
So with
everything built up to a head with the Vespiary in the last novella as well as ‘Night
of a Thousand Stars’ I was expecting more of a conclusion where we see the
start of that, of how Julia and Brisbane become involved and set it up and the
beginning of their parenthood with baby Jack. We definitely got baby Jack and
parenthood but there wasn’t a whisper of the Vespiary anywhere, which was quite
disappointing.
The novella
was a beautifully written little side story, one that I could have quite happily
read much more of, but as a final instalment for such a wonderful series? It
really didn’t even come close. There was no real closure to speak of, it just
felt like another one of Julia and Brisbane’s mysteries – something I am always
happy to read – but it didn’t feel like the end of the series.
Part of me
now lives in hope that one day we will get another book or novella, something
to give us the closure needed on all of these threads (or some mention or cameo
in another series just to tie everything up) but I have a horrible feeling that
that may not happen. So my rating is not on the novella as a series end, but on
the novella as a story (which is wonderful) instead.
Now let's just hope that the publishers decide to honour this series by creating a paperback with all four novellas in, so that all readers can enjoy them, not just those with e-readers.
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