Thank you Kensington Books, #partner for the advanced of Stolen Remains in exchange for my honest review. I got the audiobook from Scribd.
Publisher: Kensington Books / Tantor Audio
Published: April 29, 2014 / November 30, 2021
Summary:
After establishing her reputation as one of London’s most highly regarded undertakers, Violet Harper decided to take her practice to the wilds of the American West. But when her mother falls ill, Violet and her husband Samuel are summoned back to England, where her skills are as sought-after as ever. She’s honored to undertake the funeral of Anthony Fairmont, the Viscount Raybourn, a close friend of Queen Victoria’s who died in suspicious circumstances–but it’s difficult to perform her services when his body disappears. . .
As the viscount’s undertaker, all eyes are on Violet as the Fairmonts and Scotland Yard begin the search for his earthly remains. Forced to exhume her latent talents as a sleuth to preserve her good name, Violet’s own investigation takes her from servants’ quarters, to the halls of Windsor Castle, to the tombs of ancient Egypt–and the Fairmont family’s secrets quickly begin to unravel like a mummy’s wrappings. But the closer Violet gets to the truth, the closer she gets to becoming the next missing body. . .
Wrought with both heartfelt bravery and breathtaking suspense, Stolen Remains is a captivating tale of death and deception set against the indelible backdrop of Victorian London.
My thoughts:
Although it’s been a while, I loved the first book in this series, Lady of Ashes, and knew that it was something I wanted to continue. I was already a big fan of Christine Trent’s previous books and this series really did get off to a great start…it simply was a matter of too many books, too little time. But I’m so glad I finally picked it up because I so enjoyed it.
The historical mystery subgenre is really one that I have come to love and being set in Victorian England makes it that much more appealing to me. I love that once again, we are not only given a strong mystery that kept me on my toes until the end, but we learn so much about the customs of death and undertaking during this time period. Not once did I find this to be repetitive, though perhaps because there was such a gap between me reading the first book and the second, but still I think the customs as so unique to what we do know that even if there had been some repetition, it would have been fine. It really is quite fascinating. This really is my favorite part of this series and is what keeps me reading – a female undertaker and learning all about this field. It’s not something I’ve read about before and I just cannot get enough!
I am curious to see where this series takes us next. It was interesting having Violet in favor of the Queen here, but will that always be the case? I guess I’ll have to read the next book to find out!
Audio thoughts:
Because I had waited so long to read this one, by the time I picked it up, the audiobook was available and so I decided to listen to it. It was a good one to listen to as it really kept me quite engaged throughout and I thought the narrator, Polly Lee, did a great job bringing the story to life. I think if she is narrating the rest of the series that I will continue listening to the books.
Books in this series:
2. Stolen Remains
3. A Virtuous Death
4. The Mourning Bells
5. Death at the Abbey
6. A Grave Celebration
6.5 The Deadly Hours – A Pocketful of Death
