Veronica Speedwell Book 4, where we have gothic vibes, island with a castle with a foggy weather and rains, stone and gloom, old velvet nibbled by moths and even a garden with poisonous plants (used, but not in a sense you'd expect). The habitants are living under the impression that the owner's bride escaped the island on her wedding day because he girl vanished into thin air. Some believe she never left and her ghost still haunts the halls of the castle.
Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell is whisked off to a remote island off the tip of Cornwall when her natural historian colleague Stoker's brother calls in a favor. On the pretext of wanting a companion to accompany him to Lord Malcolm Romilly's house party, Tiberius persuades Veronica to pose as his fiancée—much to Stoker's chagrin. But upon arriving, it becomes clear that the party is not as innocent as it had seemed. Every invited guest has a connection to Romilly's wife, Rosamund, who disappeared on her wedding day three years ago, and a dramatic dinner proves she is very much on her husband's mind.As spectral figures, ghostly music, and mysterious threats begin to plague the partygoers, Veronica enlists Stoker's help to discover the host's true motivations. And as they investigate, it becomes clear that there are numerous mysteries surrounding the Romilly estate, and every person present has a motive to kill Rosamund...
Veronica Speedwell. Book 4
I must say I quite liked the atmosphere of this book. Even the prose and descriptions tended to give the story more gothic feel.
But before that we have an intro where Veronica takes off for half a year, just after she and Stoker were on the verge of confessing. Veronica, being interrupted, backtracked a lot. And upon her return said something ridiculous that they should stay as collegues. Bless Stoker for his stubborness and actually covertly fishing for Veronica's feelings, because the girl eventually started to regret her choices, no matter how sensible they were.
As mentioned in the summary Veronica is traveling to an island where she meets the Romilly household. Each member has a story with the missing bride, but it all happens to be dust thrown into reader's eyes as a distraction.
The owner of the castle is set to finally find out the truth about what happened to his bride, occupied by the main questions:
- What happened to his bride?
- Where is her body if she never left the island?
- Whodunnit?
Veronica and Stoker are just passer-by in the situation, but Veronica's desire to snoop around wins her over and while doing so they uncover more and more details that help solve the case. Also each member of the house is pretty mysterious in their own connection to the missing bride.
I came to terms that these two are not truly methodical in their actions and some of the mystery solving comes with the feel of convenience I'd say. You can also give it all an explanation of course, if you are inclined to do so.
My list of suspects by the time we're introduced to all the members was always around 3 and when it came to one particular event at least one person was always on the list of guilty.
After reading of course you can return back and trace the personal motive, but while reading these things are not as obvious, they're kinda tossed among the others.
What I was partially disappointed about is how perpetrator gave themselves away at the end, so it wasn't like Veronica and Stoker calling everyone to one room and pointing fingers of - you've done it.
Another interesting part I think is about Rosamund and the perspective. We never know her personally, only from the words of other people and she gives completely different impression, but what I was inclined to believe is testimony of women who were close to her. In stark contrast came the adoration of men.
But I honestly was thinking I'm given Stoker's ex-wife flashbacks 2.0.
Overall I liked the story, the relationship question was finally solved in a flashy way. The mystery was also solved, not without a moment of enlightment from Veronica I must admit.
More about in spoilers.
SPOILERS
Part 1. Introduction / setting
The castle is situated on top of the St Monnard's island, it has a layered structure with many gardens, including vegetable and medicinal, the even have one closed garden with poisonous plants, also they have an orchard and vineyard. A bit away is a village with many fishermen living there. The legend says the Romilly family started from a union between a mermaid and a man. Not far from the island you could see three small islands that were called three sisters. With high tideas they disappear. Like any castle it also has many underground secret tunnels that lead different ways and with high tide some of them get submerged in water.
The Romilly family lived with conviction that Rosamund disappeared on her wedding day and no one knows what happened to her. There are several theories covered in press that discussed this case extensively, from getting cold feet as a new wife, to escaping with a lover and the cornish folk that lives on an island even believe she became a dove and flew away (not helpful). If she's dead or alive is not known. But she's missing, no missing boat was reported though, she simply vanished.
At first no one speaks of her, only with time we realize that each member has some connection to Rosamund in one way or another. I had three strong suspects at first, but eventually perpetrator gave themselves away, it was my only doubt if they had accomplice or not.
During the dinner upon their arrival Malcolm Romilly (the owner of the castle) brings up an evidence that Rosamund might have never left and if she didn't then she must be dead. The evidence is her travel bag with her personal things.
Part 2. Mystery
So if she's still on the island then where is her body? Can it be found? the island was searched not once, she must be somewhere still. And if she's dead then who killed her? because accident is unlikely in such scenario.
Part 3. Investigation
Mainly comes in a form of asking the members of this family questions, if they had conflicts with the girl or if they've seen or heard anything in particular. Veronica and Stoker don't have much progress because people themselves are not willing to share a lot of details and some even say to give it a rest.
What gives the investigation a push (and us readers with a perfect suspect) is what happens during the seance by one of the members, Helen Romilly. When the small company of people was gathered together and the light went out they could hear the sound of harpsichird, the instrument Rosamund played when she lived in the castle. But when they reach the musc room it happened to be empty (theatrics). Each member is shaken to the core and everyone have their own reasons to be disturbed. On the other hand Veronica and Stoker discover a secret passage that connects the room with library. It's a castle with a lot of nooks and crannies.
To me that highlighted the housekeeper at least as participant of the murder right away. Only she was absent from the room and she's the one with motivation as well. if she had any accomplice, I had no idea.
What happened next dropped shade on every member of the family, even on Stoker's brother, Tiberius. But it all happened to be nothing compared to sudden disappearance of the host. Where had he gone? He vanished like his bride. before that I kinda suspected hima bit, because with novels like these you sometimes never know what might happen next, but after he disappeared I knew he was surely innocent and all the details that were dropped bit by bit were nothing more but a distraction. It would have been too stupid to start it all and then disappear.
All before Mrs Trengrouse herself showed up, the housekeeper, with a gun and made our trio swim towards the First Sister, because the boat was faulty it drowned and because of the high tide our trio thought they were done. Stoker swam all the way to the village to ask for help. Although it seemed a high stake moment but it was resolved pretty fast and veronica with Tiberius were saved. It was also the moment when Stoker confessed that he loved Veronica enough to die for her (trying to swim in such dire conditions). This is the part which I found silly, like what she would say if they really disappeared? Would she claim they were searching for Rosamund and met with accident, too many to count.
When Veronica came around she had epiphany that when they found the Rosamund bag in malcolm's room, they found it in a secret place, they missed the part that it was a double layered one. So they rushed to break the pannel finding exhausted Malcolm and unlucky Mrs Trengrouse with him.
Malcolm shares the reason his housekeeper held him captive for several days, that he guessed she was at fault. Mrs Trengrouse was grabbed by him and the door closed with the two of them trapped.
The housekeeper also confesses to her deeds, but she never says where the body of Rosamund is. It came to Veronica afterwards and they tried their theory eventually finding the body in a wine barrel.
Note: I have no idea about the decomposition in alcohol, because it was described as if she was preserved in good condition (3 years passed btw). Also I have no idea how housekeeper danced around the barrel itself, they had wines, but she surely didn't feed other one from Rosamund's barrel, I hope, otherwise you can imagine what would happen.
Part 4. Characters / motivation
Malcolm Romilly (grieving owner) was geniuninely searching for answers. He fell for Rosamund and was happy to have her as his wife, so it drove him quite mad that it was unknown for so long. The finding of the bag was the key to solving this puzzle. The dust in the eyes of the readers I was talking about is how he was described as a bit of a violent man, he was expelled for it during school days. he also could have done something in a heat of the moment because we as readers eventually find out that Rosamund had an affair with Tiberius during her weeks preparing for the wedding and she also became pregnant, so she was with a bastard child when she married.
Rosamund. Let's start from her, since she is such a peculiar character. She never appears and only exists in memories. She is, as we find, ambitious and calculating, also manipulative and almost demanding. She befriended malcom's sister during school days and eventually milked that friendship to her own advantage. She almost demanded to be invited to the island where she soon became engaged to Malcolm. Otherwise her birth is not noble, she was a governess that was not satisfied with her fate. When she finally settled down it was also not enough for her, since she met with Tiberius who fell madly in love with her (why? don't ask, what men saw in this vile creature I don't know) and she had an affair with him. Finally bearing his child. But she refused to marry Tiberius, since he was not as easy to manipulate. Her plans were vast, she openly said what she's going to destroy Mertensia's gardens and even send Mrs Trengrouse away. To women she was nasty. So here we have it, ambitious gold digger and a bitch who was unfaithful to her betrothed.
Mertensia Romilly (loves her plants, even poisonous). her main motivation of harming Rosamund can only be directed at their one big fight when Rosamund claimed she wants roses and peonies around the gardens and not all that junk Mertensia worked for. You need to know that Mertensia is more than a scientist, she cares not only for decorative flowers, but knows remedies. It's her one big passion and Rosamund, who used their early acquaintance and openly now hated Mertensia, threatened to destroy all her years of hard work and even her own existence. With poisonous plants in her garden, ooh I even imagined what would it be if she Rosamund was there.
Helena Romilly (fake medium) she is a widow of Romilly's second son. She has no real reason to wish Rosamund harm, but if she was not there her own son would inherit the island as the only surviving male. But it was obvious she was hardly any threat. We find she became a fake medium to support her son, since Malcolm had his own period when he was unreliable. Her own seance scared her too, since she never planned the harpsichord part and geniunely thought it was real.
Her son Caspian is nothing but a cuddled young man with too many dramatics. Not important character.
Mrs. Trengrouse, the housekeeper of the household. Has been there since Mr Marlcolm was little. She is truly proud of their place and how it runs. She is very protective of every member. So her loyalty runs really deep. But it's because she is a woman of service it was easier for her to see things. Such as Rosamund's true nature and the secret of her pregnancy with a bastard child.
Her motivation was actually protection, she couldn'y see a woman with a bastard child making the whole house restless. Who knew, maybe Mr Malcom would even forgive her because fo his deep love for her (after all the instant reaction Malcolm had when he figured Mrs Trengrouse was at fault, was to strangle her). I also think it's crime of passion, she herself said that she saw red and before she knew it it was a done deal. Because she knows everything about the castle she concealed her body in a wine barrel where it was later found (the hint was that Mrs Trengrouse never drank the local vintage herself, while she drank liquor). I tend to think that if se was given time and was more methodcal about it, she'd just use something from the poisonous garden, she knew her way around it a bit. But she gave herself away because she wanted the topic of Rosamund to be buried and forgotten, she never expected that the bag would be found.
Tiberius (heartbroken lover). Honestly, he can go fuck himself. I honestly think veronica is too easy on the understanding side when Tiberius finally revealed the entire backstory. because of his resemblance on the harpsichord art they figured he had conenction to Rosamund, so they were lovers, so he had an affair with his best friend's bride, okay?! Next is he left the island and was absent during entire wedding and missing part, since he traveled to other country and married by the demand of his father. He was abusive to his wife, not physically but emotionally, so he's a scum, since his wife died in childbirth. At that time he got telegram from Rosamund about the pregnancy and that child was his, so he missed the crucial time. Honestly, I couldn't see anything good about Rosamund, but this guy was head over heels for her, like.. why. But whatever. He himself is not the greatest example of high morals. Rosamund suits him best since she's similar to him. But what got to me is how Veronica was too quick to forgive I suppose, he saw him grieving for everything he had done, especially to his wife and she said everyone needs a second chance, sure, but let's not make it so quick. Don't know, didn't like her there.
Not to mention we have more and more details about Stoker and Tiberius' childhood and it was not good of course, since Stoker is the result of their mother's affair. They were hating on each other since childhood, but were too similar at the same time.
Conclusion: Mrs Trengroouse was actually given poison by Mertensia, she was the one most devastated by the truth, yet she didn't want it all come to light and become another family scandal the press can chew on.. Malcolm was beyond himself because of that period and the truth, he was eventually taken away traveling. Mertensia stayed as the head of household. Tiberius acted like a domineering CEO during last parts before they found the body. Honestly the more you know how manipulative Rosamund was the more you don't understand his choice. She is described as such a poor soul as if she's the only one like that, but she's nasty to others and this is why I'm so harsh about her.
Well, and Veronica and Stoker were finally happy in love.
RATE: 4/5.
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