2021 historical thriller, sixth of its series. Veronica and Stoker are
specifically not asked to look into the suspicious death of an
English female climber in a Ruritanian principality. Not that that's
going to stop them.
Perhaps it was just my mood but I felt that this book lacked the
verve of earlier entries in the series. After the exact historical
integration of the previous book in particular, bringing in a
Ruritania feels like a sideways step in genre—especially when it turns
out that Veronica is a near-double of the reigning princess. But this
is no Prisoner of Zenda, even if the inevitable imposture does have
to be carried on for longer than is planned.
"Father used to do business with them. We do not have a proper
embassy in Hochstadt, but he acted as a sort of de facto consul for
a few years—well before I was born. He said it was the oddest little
place he had ever been. One mountain, one small city, one castle,
and seventy varieties of beer. He remembered it with great
difficulty."
With the romantic tension resolved in the previous book, Veronica
comes over as snappish and often uncaring; yes, all right, this is the
couple's private banter with in-jokes and so on, but it felt just a
bit too casually cruel for me to be happy with it.
But many parts work well, and it's clear that my impression wasn't
Raybourn's intention, so I can take the good and ignore the bad. As
with most modern series, I wouldn't recommend any book after the first
as an entry point, but particularly in this case I felt I appreciated
it more because I'd seen the characters acting in a more joyful
manner; even when dealing with murders and facing peril, they've
always gone in with gusto and tried to enjoy what they could of their
situation, and for me that wasn't quite the case here.