London, 1887. As the city prepares to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, Veronica Speedwell is marking a milestone of her own. After burying her spinster aunt, orphaned Veronica is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as with fending off admirers, Veronica wields her butterfly net and a sharpened hatpin with equal aplomb, and with her last connection to England gone, she intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.But fate has other plans, as Veronica discovers when she thwarts her own abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron who has ties to her mysterious past. Promising to reveal in time what he knows of the plot against her, the baron offers her temporary sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker, a reclusive natural historian as intriguing as he is bad-tempered. But before the baron can deliver on his tantalizing vow to reveal the secrets he has concealed for decades, he is found murdered. Suddenly Veronica and Stoker are forced to go on the run from an elusive assailant as wary partners in search of the villainous truth.
Veronica Speedwell. Book 1
Where should I begin. Let's begin from the good thing I especially liked. Surprisingly I actually liked the style, more like the language of it. In some cases when you read something supposedly historical it does not sound like it. And I mean only language used, how characters communicate, not their progressive thoughts. Because those were indeed progressive for the time.
It's also great that I never cared to read the summary of this book, so I had not expected the baron to be murdered like in the first third of the book. And the rest of it would have something to do with not just solving who did it, but mostly what of Veronica's past.
Is it a good mystery? Not to me. This books feels more like an introductory piece for two characters, Veronical herself and her male partner Stoker. We spend a good deal of time just introducing the characters, then digging into their past in varying degrees of success. We follow them along their journay, hear their banter, some undercurrent emotions that emerge, but in general it's mostly two of them. And then we decide that to prove that Stoker did not murder baron, more like clear the charges that were so easy to put against him by the police, we must take some action. Ngl to me it was silly that they even suspected each other at first, like each had a chance to leave during the night. I felt it was unnecessary. The proof that allowed us to understand the situation and motivation was found by accident and not by some genius deduction (which I do not prefer for a mystery, it's perfect for adventure type). The two did not prove that they have talent for this, because mainly they spent time debating if any of their theories were workable and there were many of them. But without sustainable proof those were just theories you could discuss in your kitchen.
Is the romance good? It will be a slowburn. The first book does not come to any conclusion, like they're still far away from even starting making any prgress. At least for now. Both with time have some undercurrent feelings towards each other throughout the book (especially Veronica often mentions Stoker as a great male specimen almost), they banter, but have each other's back, but there are things that keep each other at bay. Stoker's is mostly his past and his gentlemanly spirit. As for Veronica, she made a rule for herself that she will not bed a fellow countryman, so she won't get into trouble.
What about the characters? Veronica Speedwell should be somewhat of a feminist icon? But I don't understand for whom she should be that icon? She actually does nothing within her own country for women, but she has a lot to comment about, how women are treated and about male dominance etc. But basically she did nothing within her power to actually do anything, she spends most of her time abroad. Compared to her even the character of Lady C. did more because she was at least part of some women society. But basically Veronica tell her own story of her own liberation and how she can't live within such society. She realized from early on that she was not fit for being a domesticated lady, so her spirit brought her to the one thing that allowed her to acquire freedom - she became a lepidopterist. To roam around she ought to have a reason and she created one for herself. This allowed her to travel and see the world and she could not be confined to older views. Part of her travels are mentioned to have affairs with men, but she refused to do with the fellow countrymen. I know it sounds hypocritical, like if you want to be free and openly be in love, why do it only outside where no one knows you, but otherwise ruining her reputation at home will not do her any good, otherwise she won't get any good funding and won't be treated as a scientist too. There are a lot of things to consider, though I don't recall she actually explained this part which may sound contrdictory, it's just my assumption of things. But I will repeat it again, she did not take action and continued to exist in her own microcosm. Veronica is many things that have a bit of "not like other girls" feel and she's not a lady.
Stoker or Revelstoke Templeton-Vane. Is currently a taxiderist, working in his outcast workshop, doing little to survive and wanting funds for expeditions. he bears a tragic past and his real name is doused in infamy. It was actually hard to conclude his past life trajectory, because he was in navy, was an explorer (pretty famous one) and also a part of traveling circus when he met an accident during his last expedition. Quite a career for 30-something year old. Now he was asked by his close friend, baron, to protect Veronica, even with his life. Stoker is mostly a grumpy person, but he keeps his word, a gentleman despite his looks.
/SPOILERS/
It's actually not much to tell. Because as I said a lot of it was spent on banter, than actually paying attention to other stuff.
So we start at the beginning, now Veronica is orphaned after burying her late aunt, she faces intruder in her cottage, the perpetrator flees, but she is left with a person who claimed himself to be Baron Maximillian von Stauffenbach. he claims to know Veronica's mother and that she is in grave danger. With plan in mind to ditch baron at any given moment, she still goes with her gut feeling that baron is a safe person.
She is entrusted to Stoker, whom she deducts to be the missing naturalist Revelstoke Templeton-Vane. Often time Veronica does her thing, pretty blunt and on the verge of being rude.
In no time they find from the papers that baron was murdered. Feeling that the danger is actually real, Stoker and her decide to flee London to a safe place (here she is approached by a stranger, but her instict told her he is not a good person, so she fools him and escapes), a traveling show. Here they find a short safe place. But things go awry quickly, his name is revealed in papers and the holder of this show uses it for a gimmick.
Finding that just escaping is futile they decided to go back and have their own investigation. This investigation isn't much. They went to baron's house, found papers in a secret book. Were chased by unknown man, saved by nknown man.
Here is their theories have no end. With papers they find identityt of he rmother, but not father. Eventually they deduct that the man she met, Edmund de Clare is her biological uncle, but they also have no idea what is the connection to put Veronica in such a danger.
Being kidnapped by Edmund they make escape thanks to another character from before, who also saved them from the stranger in baron's house.
Although they trust the person is from Scotland Yard, but this does not prevent them from continuing.
Basically it's a lot of back and forth of who is a bad guy or a good guy and why is that. Stoker actually made more sound suggestions, so he's the real sleuth here.
Only due to accident they find a key in her compas.
This is why I don't like accidental finds, like what would you do if she lost it?
With that they find it's a key and they need to go to a bank's branch to get the content of the box which reveal the truth and true danger due to her origins.
She is actually a legitimate daughter to Prince of Wales, because her father married her mother, but he wed another woman ten days before the death of her mother. Since she is also from an Irish family (and it has a lot to do with the unrest between Ireland and England at the time, and also involves religions) and Edmund basically wanted to use her as means to reach the power, they had no use for her, but could use her child etc. On the contrary it would be a big scandal for the royal family and conflicts started from less. But this was actually too far-fetched to me, like why involve royalty? It escalated so much, from no one to a legitimate heiress. And I'm not sure it will be mentioned ever again. But Edmund has enough potential to become a villain of the series.
The final confrontation is Veronica calling upon both sides and basically showcasing how she burned the evidence so both sides can lay off. Her uncle escapes, the warehouse burns to the ground due to their own actions and Scotland Yard, more like secret service, lets her go.
By the end the mystery is all about her origins rather than who killed the baron.
the conflict is resolved, Veronica knows what to do to continue working together with Stoker and it's basically a new beginning for the two.
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RATE: 3/5. Since there's too little of mystery and not enough tension that is not put into words. I had troubles reading it, I actually started it months ago (like read 4 chapters) before reading many books in-between and at the beginning of this year decided to be done with it. I somewhat struggled through the first half, later half was easier. But it's always easier. Not because it became extremely exciting. And also a lot to say about Veronica, like she was meant to be too many things as some sort of representation and she had to be different of course. There was enough commentary on the past through her. But actually past is the past, it's not great, but actually Veronica could only comment on it, but so far had not seen her acting to change anything. So everyone can talk.
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