“To be, or not to be, that is the question’’
- Hamlet
Silent on the Moor is Deanna Raybourn’s third instalment in the Lady Julia Grey Chronicles and by far, my favourite thus far. Deanna pulls us onto the ghostly Yorkshire Moors where none other than Nicholas Brisbane has purchased an old run down Manor once owned by the Allenby’s who recently fell into disrepair after the death of their spoilt & gambling son, leaving the estate to his mother & sisters who are without the resources to keep it standing.
Enter Lady Julia Grey, who has travelled from London with her sister Portia and brother Valerius to discover whether her feelings for Nicholas Brisbane are reciprocated, resigned to the fact that if they’re not, she will simply return to London and forget Nicholas Brisbane forever.
This novel is a little darker than the first two novels although I dare say I imagine it was the scene Deanna intended to create; a rundown Manor swathed in Mist, isolated out on the Moors... Even the mention of the ruins and graveyard on the property add to the eerie atmosphere the novel creates. Unlike the previous novels, there is more of a focus on Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane so I felt some of the background characters could have been developed a little further. Having said that, everything comes together very nicely in the end and I felt completely satisfied.
This novel again is brilliantly Victorian! I just love the little historical tit bits about Victorian London, their ‘very proper' ways of thinking (particularly when it comes to women) and the fashion. And this wouldn’t be a Lady Julia Grey novel without the murder & mystery, throw in a few Egyptian artefact's (including two mummified twin babies), a few Gypsies, and an inevitable romance, and you have the perfect Sherlock Holmes a la Lady Julia Grey style.
I look forward to loosing myself in the next Lady Julia Grey novel...
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