Description (from cover):'Queen Victoria, still mourning her long-dead husband Prince Albert, has found solace in John Brown, an enigmatic palace servant who dabbles in the occult and keeps the grieving queen entertained with his tarot card readings. Undertaker Violet Harper is invited to attend one of Mr. Brown's infamous readings, during which he implies that Buckingham Palace will soon be shrouded in death's dark veil. Well acquainted with death, Violet shrugs him off as a charlatan--until his sinister divinations begin to prove true...
Violet wonders if something foul is in the cards when the aristocratic young friends of the queen's daughter begin to due under mysterious circumstances. Her suspicions only grow when one of London's "moralists," a group bent on repealing the law that forces prostitutes into hospitals, suffers a similar fate. The deaths merely buttress the queen's enthusiasm for Mr. Brown's ominous talents, and, concerned by the fortuneteller's influence, Violet races against time to unearth the truth before the killer strikes again. But as she closes in on a murderer with an unearthly motive, Violet realizes she may be digging her own grave...
By turns heartwrenching and hopeful, A Virtuous Death is a gripping tale of fortitude besieged by vengeance inside the extraordinary world of Queen Victoria's court.
My thoughts:
So I tried and I tried to get into this book, but I had quite the hard time doing so. It just couldn't keep my focus like the others in this series did and I have to say that I enjoyed the storyline, but it was an okay book for me. Nothing really made me excited to read this and when it was over it was sort of a relief. The writing was good and the characters are endearing, however, I just couldn't get into this one like I did with the others in this series. I think part of the reason is because I find Queen Victoria to be quite annoying. Of course, this is not the author's fault as she is writing about the way a historical person really was.
Queen Victoria simply annoys the crap out of me because she is still grieving Prince Albert who has been dead for quite a long time. I simply want to shake her and be like get over it already. But that is historical fact. She also speaks in the third person which is incessantly annoying. I believe that for the most part I was bored with this book because I am able sick of Queen Victoria and her weirdness. I really enjoy Violet's character and all the things I learn about Victorian undertaking in this series, but somehow Queen Victoria puts a damper on the whole book for me.
Nevertheless, if we can get Violet away from the annoying Queen then perhaps this series would really pick up for me. I just don't know how much I can put up with it right now. I think that if I had read the books in this series separately and not back to back it might have made a difference. I will just have to wait to see what happens in the next installment in this series and hope that Violet stays away from Victoria and we get to see Violet doing what she does best.
Overall Rating: 2
Title: A Virtuous Death
Author: Christine Trent
Series: Lady of Ashes Mystery #3
Publisher: Kensington
Publication Date: October 24, 2014
Pages: 288
Genre: Historical Mystery
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
Disclaimer: This book was selected from the library by myself and I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.
