A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn is the third installment of the Veronica
Speedwell series. Veronica finally moves beyond her origin story and fulfills
her promise as a detective in Victorian England. Her case involves Egyptian
treasures, mummy curses, and a missing person. Along with her loyal companion
Stoker, she solves the mystery after plenty of false directions and surprises.
Sir Leicester Tiverton’s expedition
returns from Egypt with Princess Ankheset’s sarcophagus, mummy, and a gold
diadem. This would have been the expedition of a lifetime, assuring Tiverton’s
place in history, except… Jonas Fowler, expedition director, died of a bad
heart. John de Morgan, the expedition photographer, made it back to Dover and then
mysteriously disappeared. The god Anubis appeared first in Egypt and later in
London. American millionaire Horus Stihl opposed Tiverton, and J.J. Butterworth
has been publishing sensational stories in the Daily Harbinger attributing much
of this to a curse.
The main mystery is what happened to
John de Morgan, but the appearances of Anubis, the disappearance of Princess Ankneset’s
diadem, and Jonas Fowler’s death are some of the other mysteries. All the
relationships, husband-wife, parent-child, are problematic. The mystery is
wonderfully convoluted and resolved. This can easily be read without the two-volume
origin story.
Veronica is smart, fearless, and has a
dry sense of humor.
“How can you [Veronica] stand to be
near him now that you know he has taken a life?” she demanded.
[Veronica] moved closer to her, giving
her a slow smile, a tiger’s smile. “Because, Mrs. De Morgan, I have taken two.”
I read the eBook and found myself referring
to the online dictionary often: furbelows, chinoiserie, vitrine, dimity, vesta,
insalubrious, imagoes, cartonnage, and virago.
A cozy mystery of Victorian England
and Egyptian expeditions with plenty of twists and turns.
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