Book Review: The Dark Inquiry by Deanna Raybourn

The Dark Inquiry
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Series: Lady Julia Grey Mysteries (Book 5)
Publication: MIRA (September 14, 2015)

Description: Partners now in marriage and in trade, Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane have finally returned from abroad to set up housekeeping in London. But merging their respective collections of gadgets, pets and servants leaves little room for the harried newlyweds themselves, let alone Brisbane's private enquiry business.

Among the more unlikely clients: Julia's very proper brother, Lord Bellmont, who swears Brisbane to secrecy about his case. Not about to be left out of anything concerning her beloved—if eccentric—family, spirited Julia soon picks up the trail of the investigation.

It leads to the exclusive Ghost Club, where the alluring Madame Séraphine holds evening séances…and not a few powerful gentlemen in thrall. From this eerie enclave unfolds a lurid tangle of dark deeds, whose tendrils crush reputations and throttle trust.

Shocked to find their investigation spun into salacious newspaper headlines, bristling at the tension it causes between them, the Brisbanes find they must unite or fall. For Bellmont's sake—and more—they'll face myriad dangers born of dark secrets, the kind men kill to keep….

My Thoughts: Back in London, Julia and Brisbane get involved with spiritualists and spies when they try to recover evidence of her older brother Bellmont's affair with a spiritualist. At first, things seem rather simple. All they have to do is confront the spiritualist and convince her to return Bellmont's letters. Before they can confront her, someone kills her with aconite leaving the letters still missing.

Julia visits the other people who were at the seance she attended and eliminates a couple of them and also meets the intriguing Sir Morgan Fielding who turns out to be an illegitimate cousin of hers. She immediately takes a liking to him which is often a clue in this series that he is up to no good. She soon learns some of his secrets and how they connect to her mysterious husband. We also get a chance to meet more of Brisbane's gypsy relatives when they take shelter in a gypsy camp run by his grandmother.

This book is packed with action and danger for both Julia and Brisbane. Through the course of this story the reader can just see the relationship deepen between Julia and Brisbane as he finally lets loose of some of the secrets in his life now that he is confident that nothing is going to change Julia's love for him.

I love the setting of this story and the touches of humor. Julia's eccentric family and her own eccentricities are often quite funny. I love her growing assortment of pets.

Favorite Quote:

It was not the first itme I had pushed my way into his world, and not the first time I had made him shatteringly angry in doing so. The trouble, I believed, had its roots in our respective pasts. I came from a family too much in each other's pockets. We Marches were forthright, emotional, feckless and impulsive. We also loved to talk. There was not a thought or deed that wen unremarked amongst us. Secrets were short-lived in our family. We made a life's work of interfering in each other's business, and then telling the others about it, and with ten children, there was always much to tell.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.