a perilous undertaking by deanna raybourn

“It is not as if that scar upon your face were a love bite from a kitten.”

“You are a fine one to talk!” I retorted. “And I suspect your continued survival owes itself to a combination of good fortune and sheer bloody-mindedness. “Might I remind you that I have, upon many and various occasions, been in mortal danger and I am still here.” I turned to face him, not lowering the blade. When your life is in danger, your body must know what to do, because there is no time for your mind to engage.” “The entire purpose of this exercise is to train you to react, not to think. “You are thinking too much.” Stoker folded his arms over the breadth of his chest and looked down his nose at me. I faced the target, staring it down as if it were an approaching lion. I suppressed a sigh and took the knife, grasping it lightly as I had been taught. “For the love of all that is holy, Veronica, the object is to maim or kill, not tickle,” Stoker informed me, clipping the words sharply as he handed me a knife. ***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected copy proof*** 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. From a Bohemian artists’ colony to a royal palace to a subterranean grotto with a decadent history, the investigation proves to be a very perilous undertaking indeed.

Together with her natural-historian colleague, Stoker, Veronica races against time to find the true murderer. Ramsforth, accused of the brutal murder of his mistress, Artemisia, will face the hangman’s noose in a week’s time if the real killer is not found.īut Lady Sundridge is not all that she seems, and unmasking her true identity is only the first of many secrets Veronica must uncover. At the Curiosity Club, a ladies-only establishment for daring and intrepid women, Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell meets the mysterious Lady Sundridge, who begs her to take on an impossible task-saving society art patron Miles Ramsforth from execution. The “wickedly clever and devilishly amusing”* Veronica Speedwell returns for a rousing adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of the Lady Julia Grey Mysteries.

A perilous undertaking by deanna raybourn