The Dark Road to Darjeeling
By Deanna Raybourn (400 pages)
Published by Mira
Bookish rating: 3.75
In this, the fourth installment of the historical Lady Julia Grey mystery series (an unfortunate phrase that makes these books sound like commercial crap when they’re really something quite better), newly married Julia and her detective spouse, Brisbane, end up in India for yet another murder mystery.
In true Raybourn fashion, the prose is elegantly written with a dash of sass. I like it. It’s the main reason I keep reading the series. The mystery is complicated enough, and I was wrong about the murderer, so there’s that. However, some part of the book failed to completely deliver for me. Perhaps it was moving the setting to India—spicing things up with some exoticism isn’t the worst idea ever, but the thing is, I liked the settings in England. They were part of the draw of the series for me. Moors, abbeys, country estates. I’m obsessed with Dowton Abbey for a reason, you know.
Second, now that Julia and her brooding Brisbane are now married, a good deal of romantic tension between the two is gone. Raybourn obviously was aware this would happen, so she entered some marital strife. But not too shockingly, arguments and huffiness between married folk is a lot less interesting than the cat-and-mouse, sexily ramped up tension of maybe getting together. Alas, ‘twas book four. Raybourn had to do it. I don’t fault her.
Overall, not my favorite Lady Julia Grey book, but I still liked it enough. I’ll read the fifth. And if you haven’t read any of the previous books in the series, I do recommend them (the first is Silent in the Grave).
