Customer Reviews

Dark Road to Darjeeling (Lady Julia Grey)

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you are a fan of historical mysteries and you haven't read the first three books in Deanna Raybourn's amazing Lady Julia Grey series then I would suggest that you do so immediately. This is a fantastic series featuring excellent writing, wonderful characters, exacting period detail, and sharp as a tack dialogue.

The first three books in the series found Julia and Nicholas meeting over the body of her first husband, bonding over adventures involving her family and his and finally realizing that they are meant to be. The newest book was bound to be a challenge for it would be the first to feature the couple as husband and wife. These are two incredibly strong-willed people and I wondered if DR would be able to find a way to allow them to make all of the compromises a newly married couple must make and still retain their individuality. I needn't have worried, because in DR's masterful hands Julia and Nicholas manage to navigate their way through the rocky waters of their new marriage and emerge not only stronger as a couple, but also with their individual character intact.

The book opens with Julia's siblings Plum and Portia tracking the newlywed Brisbanes down while they are on their honeymoon. Portia requests their assistance in the matter of her ex-partner Jane. Jane is recently widowed and expecting a child. She is living on her husband's tea plantation in India and Portia is concerned about her safety, as well as her state of mind. The group travels to India, where they set about figuring out if there was indeed foul play involved in Jane's husband's death. Initially, I bemoaned the fact that this book was going to be set in India since England is my favorite setting for historical mysteries, but I soon changed my tune. The setting was perfect. The exotic locale pulled Nicholas and Julia out of their normal comfort zone and, in my opinion, placed them on a more even playing field. As they begin investigating the strange occurrences around the plantation, they both are forced to deal with people and places terribly unfamiliar to them. It was interesting to watch their different investigative styles emerge as they struggle with their individual desire to be the one to solve the mystery versus their obvious strength when they work as a team. The plot was well-developed and the ending was a bit of a shocker. Although I started to suspect the truth about 3/4ths of the way through, I wasn't sure that DR would go in that direction, but I thought it provided a solid twist.

The most satisfying aspect of the book for me was watching Nicholas and Julia figure out how to be husband and wife. It was clear that the idea of melding their lives was causing both some real angst. I was pleased to see that they continued to treat each other with the respect and affection that they have always shared. The romance lover in me was thrilled to find that the intimacy of the marital bed had not dampened the heated attraction between the two. When Nicholas and Julia married at the end of the last book, I was alternately excited and concerned. I was so happy that they were together finally, but wondered if DR would be able to keep their relationship interesting. After reading Dark Road to Darjeeling, I feel nothing but optimistic that this relationship will continue to develop and grow in all kinds of intriguing ways. While I have loved all three of the previous books in the series, I have to say that Dark Road to Darjeeling was pretty nearly flawless. I came away from it anticipating all of the amazing adventures that the future holds for these two characters as well as the rest of the eccentric March clan. Kudos Ms. Raybourn! Keep 'em coming...

Like many mid-series books, I had both giddy, unrestrained expectations and somewhat hesitant reservations for Dark Road to Darjeeling. If the Lady Julia Gray series had been a trilogy, it was perfect in my eyes, especially the conclusion of Silent on the Moor. Really, I couldn't have asked for more. That said I was still very ecstatic about the prospect of another book with the darkly intriguing Brisbane and charmingly obstinate Julia, but it was hard not to think for just a second that the streak for near perfection would be tainted somehow. This reservation was compounded by the fact that this was a transitional book for these two. I was a tad afraid that their relationship wouldn't have that same spark that made the first three books so special.

Again, as many of the most beloved books do, I'm left speechless, and Dark Road to Darjeeling is just one of those stumpers. Where the mystery twists and turns may have become routine or Julia and Brisbane's relationship could've lost its distinctive tug-of-war, it didn't. The suspects were myriad and the motives complex. The change in location to totally unfamiliar territory - India - evidently proved inspiring rather than stifling. Along with Julia, I was alternately enchanted and frightened by the lush location and fooled as to the true identities and motives of those around her. Brisbane is as dashing, mysterious, and at times as frustrating as ever. The real stand out is their amazingly organic professional and personal relationship. They push and pull at one another and yet complement each other very well. I love watching them argue and care. It's a given that I've already reread my favorite passages, many of which include only Julia and Brisbane. I also continue to be touched and entertained by the March family, especially Portia. It was a treat, too, to have light shed on their brother Plum. As you can guess, Julia isn't always quick-witted enough to divert disaster or self-sabotage. She is the everyman's detective and you can't help but love her in her fallible, amateur ways. After all we'd all like to think of ourselves as having dormant, secret abilities. If you are a fan at all of Victorian era historical fiction, mystery, and a little romance please pick up this series already, you won't be disappointed. Dark Road to Darjeeling is one of the best written Lady Julia books yet.

This is the 4th book in the Lady Julia Grey series. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the first 3 novels, my feelings about this one are mixed.

After Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane marry in the previous book (SILENT ON THE MOOR), they spend the better part of a year on their Mediterranean wedding trip, finally rushing to India to aid a close family friend whose husband has died under questionable circumstances, their first mystery to solve as a married couple.

The setting at a tea plantation in the Himalayan foothills is described beautifully. The characters are all fascinating, and the mystery to be solved is a really tough one. However, Lady Julia does not come across very well this time out. I can't believe the author intended her heroine to be this irritating! Lady Julia imagines herself equal to her husband Nicholas Brisbane's sleuthing skills and manages to make his job that much harder as he has to constantly save her from herself. Julia's ridiculous over-confidence and childish need to compete with her husband is truly annoying. As appealing as she was in the three previous novels, that's how unappealing she is in this novel. I can only hope the author will endow Lady Julia with a lot more common sense in the next book.

Dark Road To Darjeeling is the fourth book in the Lady Julia Grey series, but it is the first book, I have read from this author. I think it is safe to say, that this book can be read as a stand alone, but I personally would have liked to have read the previous books. I normally do not read historical mysteries, as I am more of a historical romance type of gal, but I was intrigued by the blurb. Not to mention, I occasionally enjoy a good mystery as much as the next person. So, when I was asked to read and review, I was happy to.

The author does an amazing job with the character detail. Each character was rich with depth and substance. My favorite was the protagonist, Lady Julia. She was compassionate, independent, witty, and an intelligent woman, who also had a craving for adventure. But much to her husband, Brisbane's disdain, she also leaped before she looked and carelessly put herself in danger. Not having read the previous books, I thought Brisbane came off a bit a jerk in the beginning of the book, but, as the story went on, I began to understand his point of view. I think my problem was, I was living vicariously through Lady Julia, so much so, that I was also beginning to feel as she felt and only seeing the world around her, from her perspective. In truth, I didn't realize I was doing it, until it was brought to my attention, by a supporting character through the author's remarkable writing skill. I also appreciated, while Lady Julia and Brisbane were newlyweds, they were not living in marital bliss. It found it interesting as they struggled to find a compromise and discover that marriage wasn't all happy bliss, it took work.

I thought the plot was a wonderfully written whodunit. Lady Jane and Brisbane are pulled from their honeymoon to investigate a murder. The clues that are left for the reader are subtle, but the truth is in the characters. Each had motive, means, and opportunity. I enjoyed the interactions between Lady Jane and the supporting characters aka "suspects". It was fun to learn more about them as the investigation went on. I also think, the lush India scenery provided for an amazing backdrop for a mystery. I do want to point out, that everything from the detail, discription and dialogue felt authentic. I also appreciated, the author's skill in writing circumstances, which at the time, would have been considered taboo, was done with taste and crediablity.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. Often at times, I found myself shifting back and forth between suspects trying to figure out whodunit. I love the fact, that not only was there a mystery to solve, but the author threw in several surprising twist and bittersweet moments. Although, this is a little outside my preferred genre, I couldn't put this book down, I just had to know whodunit.

This may be my favorite Lady Julia novel since the very first one, SILENT IN THE GRAVE. As usual, Raybourn not only entertains us with a mystery to try to solve along with Lady Julia and her investigator husband Brisbane (and we have lots of suspects to choose from), but she also gives us good character studies of new and recurring characters with interesting and real conversations and interactions.

Julia and Nicholas's relationship continues to develop and that's a joy to read about, especially since I've had a major crush on Brisbane since the first book and apparently am enjoying married life with him vicariously through Julia. Now, I don't mean this in a bad way, but I am finding a bit of a Lucy-Desi ("I Love Lucy") overtone in the interactions between the two sometimes. Julia leaps before she looks at times, Brisbane is a bit patronizing and autocratic at times. But the love between them is real and the relationship is growing, with compromise on the part of both of them.

Lady Julia books continue to be favorites of mine and I hope Julia and Brisbane continue solving mysteries together until (and beyond) their golden wedding anniversary.

(4.5 stars) Lady Julia Grey -- nay, Brisbane! -- returns for a fourth murder mystery, and this time she is on her honeymoon trip. We catch up with her; her sometimes brooding private enquiry agent (detective) husband, Nicholas Brisbane; and two of her siblings, Portia and Plum. Actually, Brisbane isn't with them yet -- he parted from them in Calcutta and will catch them up. The rest of the group laboriously make their way out of Darjeeling with porters and a caravan of donkeys. They're headed for a remote tea estate called "the Peacocks" where Portia's love in the earlier books, Jane, has summoned them to look into the suspicious death of her husband. Jane is not only a widow but also pregnant, and if the child is a boy, he will be heir to the estate. That could endanger both the baby and Jane. Portia naturally wants to protect them, and who better to help than Julia and Brisbane.

At and near the Peacocks, Julia becomes acquainted with a new set of suspects. There is the family of Portia's dead husband, Freddie Cavendish. There are the nearby reverend, his naturalist son, and his Bohemian wife and daughter. There is lost soul Dr. Llewellyn. There is the mysterious White Rajah who abides in an abandoned monastery. There are the two half-castes, one of whom prefers Indian ways and the other English. There is the leprous old woman at the local crossroads.

Also in the area are Julia's two cousins who first appeared in Silent in the Sanctuary: A Lady Julia Grey Mystery, Emma and Lucy Phipps. Since these sisters left England under a cloud, the question is whether their story will satisfactorily resolved here. Or will there continue to be doubt about their motives and actions?

As a married couple, Julia and Brisbane's main point of contention has to do with whether she should be active in his investigations. Both chafe, thinking the other is trying to make them dance to a tune they would rather not even hear. They argue strenuously about the matter, and more than once Brisbane puts Julia under lock and key to keep her safe. Of course, the irrepressible Julia won't be deterred -- and does find herself in mortal danger. But she also begins to realize that Brisbane is trained in his profession (he reminds one of Sherlock Holmes sometimes) and perhaps she needs to make fewer demands to be his full detecting partner.

Dark Road to Darjeeling is a fine addition to the Lady Julia series. It is smartly written and plotted, with a number of genuinely surprising jolts. It also contains a few developments that are extremely sad. Frankly, I could have done without two of them. However, Deanna Raybourn deserves credit for refusing to compromise in her depiction of human complexity and of the ambiguities and regrets which we all accumulate. She tackles some exceedingly dark possibilities of life.
Recommended.

Although I had not read any of the earlier entries in the Lady Julia Grey series, when I was offered a copy of this book to review, I snapped it up. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

Well, this is one gamble that paid off in spades.

Dark Road to Darjeeling is a delightful historical mystery set in Colonial India. I can best describe its style as Anne Perry meets Amelia Peabody. The mystery - who killed the owner of a tea plantation - is both interesting and well-executed.

However, it is the characters that kept me turning pages. Lady Julia and her family are occasionally biting, sometimes vulnerable, routinely funny and thoroughly endearing. I was almost sad to say good-bye to them at the end of the book.

Although this is the fourth book in the series, it is very accessible to first-time readers. Deanna Raybourn is a good writer, weaving her web of words skilfully and intertwining humour and tragedy with a deft touch.

This may have been the first Raybourn mystery I read, but I guarantee you it won't be the last.

The booknotes for "Dark Road to Darjeeling" state that Deanna Raybourn minored in Shakespearean Studies during her University years, and she uses that knowledge to weave a many layered tale filled with suspicion and dark deeds which reach forward from generations passed to touch the present. As I read, I could hear echoes of "Macbeth", "Othello" and "Lear" and most darkly "Titus Andronicus".

The story starts simply with the last days of the honeymoon of Nicholas and Julia Brisbane. They are preparing to turn homeward to England when Julia's brother and sister appear, without warning, at their hotel. Julia, Portia and Plum are children of Earl March and have been brought up in the eccentric world of the English upper classes of the late 19th Century. The reason Portia and Plum have travelled to India is to persuade Julia and Brisbane (as he is called) to help solve the death and ongoing mystery surrounding the Cavendish Tea Garden (read Plantation) in the foothills of the Himalayas. Portia's friend, Jane, having married unexpectedly and moved to India, has been left widowed and pregnant before her first anniversary. Her late husband was the heir to the Plantation and the ownership of the estate, going forward, depends on the gender of Jane's unborn child. The estate is entailed on the male line, and if Jane's child is a boy, he will inherit; if it is a girl, she and her mother will be beholden to the Cavendish heir for whatever support he wishes to give them. The question is whether the current managers of the estate, a cousin named Henry Cavendish and a maiden aunt will allow the baby and its mother to survive until the birthdate. A boy child and heir will render the aunt and cousin as guests on the land which they have managed for several years.

As the book moves along, we are introduced to a wonderful cast of characters including a mysterious individual named the White Rajah, the Phipps sisters, who have somehow relocated to the neighborhood after the younger sister lost her husband during the voyage out to India. There is also Dr. Llewellyn, whose guilt and grief at the violent death of his beloved wife and his escape to alcoholism, have rendered him practically useless to the community, and half caste twin sisters with a mysterious past. One, Ms. Thorne is very British and a governess while the other, Lalita, leans toward the other side of their parentage and prefers the life of the gourmet cook to a local family. That family, the Pennyfeathers, are made up of the local Parson, his wife and their two children. The Parson is a "Parson" while his wife is rather exotic in the bohemian sense and who would fit easily into the Bloomsbury Group, wearing draperies rather than good Victorian dresses and indulging in her avocation of photography which, in 1884, was fast becoming an art form. She is very good and one almost wishes that Ms. Raybourn would write a book about the future adventures of her and her daughter. The reader felt that Mrs Pennyfeather might well become famous.

This is an excellent story, well plotted and explained, by a writer who knows this history. Even the twists, in the plot, are laid out in such a way that the reader is never lost. As a little extra gift, Ms. Raybourn starts each chapter with a quote from the famed Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore. These lines are beautiful and deep and may make the reader go further into one of these books of poetry to learn more about this poet, about whom we in the West do not know enough.

Sometimes, marriage is the kiss of death for a series in which a man and woman quarrel incessantly but finally realize that they are essential to one another's happiness. Fortunately, the union of Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane enhances rather than detracts from Deanna Raybourn's "Dark Road to Darjeeling." The author keeps us engrossed by removing her characters from their comfort zone and placing them in a lovely Indian tea garden; making it clear that, although Julia and Brisbane remain passionately in love, they still have issues about Julia's habit of courting danger; and providing strong supporting roles for Julia's sarcastic siblings, Portia and Plum, Julia's grumpy maid, Morag, and Portia's sweet-natured friend, Jane, who is widowed and expecting her first child.

The year is 1889, and after a nine-month honeymoon during which Julia and her husband explored "the most remote corners of the Mediterranean," the newlyweds are ready to go home. Portia has other ideas. She drags Julia to India to visit Jane, whose husband, Freddy Cavendish, recently died in India under mysterious circumstances. Not only does Portia want to spend time with Jane, whom she adores, but she wants to determine if Freddy died from natural causes. Naturally, Julia likes nothing more than a good mystery and she wastes no time sticking her nose into the affairs of every individual in the vicinity. Julia learns that quite a few people, including Jane herself, had sound reasons to want Freddy dead. During the course of the narrative, Julia's husband, who makes his living as a private enquiry agent, clashes with someone from his past, liaisons are formed between unlikely couples, and the March siblings all evolve emotionally in ways that they never could have foreseen.

"Dark Road to Darjeeling" is an uproarious, lively, perfectly paced, and thoroughly entertaining romp, filled with witty dialogue and offbeat characters. They include a perpetually inebriated physician, an avant-garde female photographer named Cassandra Pennyfeather, a "White Rajah" who seems to be "a darling old gentleman," Freddy's stern and formidable spinster aunt, Camellia Cavendish, and a young boy with a zeal for scientific experimentation. There is even a man-eating (or possibly woman-eating) tiger roaming the neighborhood. The ladies are instructed to shoot themselves rather than allow the tiger to tear them limb from limb. Red herrings abound and nothing, we soon ascertain, can be taken at face value.

As if all this were not enough to keep us turning pages, Raybourn touches on a few serious themes, such as the role of women in British society; the treatment of servants and others of the "lower classes"; and the inequities in the laws of inheritance. Julia's brother, Plum, brings up a particularly telling point when he says of himself, Julia, and Portia, "We are dilettantes, but never virtuosos. We have talent, but because of father's money we are never forced to use that talent to drive us." Julia knows that, as a well-to-do and pampered daughter of an earl, she must find productive ways to fill her time. Otherwise, she may wind up spending her days as little more than a decorative ornament, unhappy and unfulfilled.

This is the 4th book in the Lady Julia Grey mystery series. It is 1889. Lady Julia and her her husband Brisbane are drawn to India by Jane, the once-lover of Julia's sister Portia who now finds herself pregnant and alone after her husband died under mysterious circumstances. Jane and her unborn baby are now at risk as the baby, should it turn out to be a boy, will become heir to the considerable estate that presumably the father was killed for.

Like the other 3 books, this one is filled with a colorful cast of characters that Lady Julia politely mingles with (in that uniquely British way) while pumping them for personal details of their lives and entanglements with the deceased. The dialogue is clever and the conversations between Julia and her sister Portia are always good for a laugh. She and her husband Brisbane continue to have a spicy relationship filled with passionate arguments followed by even more passionate lovemaking. Or at least it's passionate in my head as the author doesn't divulge any details beyond, "satisfying marital relations."

But sadly this is the last book in the series I will be reading. The relationship between Julia and Brisbane, while still fun to read, lost much of it's sizzle in this book. The humor, which is still there (barely), is growing stale. Julia's character is not developing except for the fact that she gets increasingly unpleasant in each book. The premise of Julia being good at getting near-strangers to divulge their most intimate secrets has started to grate. And frankly, Julia never actually solves any mysteries. At the end of each book the guilty party simply confesses to her. Every. Freekin. Time.

The first 3 are really fun. Silent in the Grave (#1) is the best. But despite my desperate love of Nicholas Brisbane, this will be my last adventure with Lady Julia Grey.