A Sinister Revenge: A Veronica Speedwell Mystery

Set in 1889, Raybourn’s tantalizing eighth mystery featuring lepidopterist Veronica Speedwell (after 2022’s An Impossible Impostor) takes her to Bavaria, where she hopes to reconnect with her estranged lover, Revelstoke “Stoker” Templeton-Vane. Veronica is joined by Stoker’s brother, Tiberius, who has recently received two newspaper clippings in the mail describing the deaths of a German fossil hunter and a French bon vivant; in the margin of the second, someone has written: “You will be next. Prepare your soul. VENGEANCE FOR LORENZO.” The dead men were part of a group, the Seven Sinners, that Tiberius belonged to at Cambridge University, and Lorenzo d’Ambrogio, another member, died in a storm after uncovering the complete fossilized skeleton of a new species of dinosaur. Though Tiberius believed the death an accident, the deaths of his colleagues, and the threat, have led him to reconsider. Veronica and Stoker return with Tiberius to England to protect him and uncover the truth behind the three deaths. Superior prose matches the clever plot. Fans of Anne Perry’s Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series will be pleased. Agent: Pamela Hopkins, Hopkins Literary Assoc. (Mar.)