Murder by Death

What can I say?  I really liked this one, it's an excellent start to what I hope will be many equally interesting adventures.  Ms. Raybourn nailed the characters, imo: Ms. Speedwell is my personal historical heroine; I love her history and the way she owns her choices, and Stoker is Sebastian Gage, v2.0.  He's still fiery, vitriolic, dark, mysterious - but he's not a disrespectful jackass.

As a few of my friends have said before me, I could have done without the traveling circus and not missed it; I get that the author needed a setting, a motivation, an excuse to give Stoker and Speedwell the chance to learn more about each other and some of their secretive pasts, but the circus thing just doesn't interest me and that's the only reason this book 'only' got 4 stars instead of 4.5.

The ending was bold.  Really bold.  Ms. Raybourn truly made Veronica the most dangerous person to the UK in a subtle, glorious and inspired way.  I'm a little disappointed that it seems we're going to be subjected to an over-arcing villain in the series, but I suppose I can't have everything.  I can't wait until book 2 comes out to see what happens next.

NB: I'd have taken the money.  ;)