A Murderous Relation (A Veronica Speedwell Mystery)
By Deanna Raybourn
Berkley, 2020

It was probably inevitable that Veronica Speedwell and her investigation partner Stoker Templeton-Vane, the endearing duo at the heart of Deanna Raybourn’s light-hearted Victorian historical mystery series, would someday deal with one of history’s greatest unsolved mysteries: the killings perpetrated by Jack the Ripper in 1888 Whitechapel. In the latest book, A Murderous Relation, this does indeed happen. Veronica and Stoker find themselves back in a the heart of a London embroiled in Ripper-mania.

It’s another case that immediately concerns them, however: Lady Wellingtonia Beauclerk has asked them to recover a precious artifact that was impulsively given to the proprietress of The Club de l’Étoile, “an establishment of nocturnal entertainment” that plays host to some of the richest and most powerful men in the city. The giver of this indiscreet gift was none other than Prince Albert Victor, son of Queen Victoria’s heir and a frequent visitor to the club. Lady Wellie is eager to get the keepsake back before somebody uses it to break open an enormous scandal on the Royal Family, but, this being a Veronica Speedwell novel, the plot rapidly expands to include murder. 

And the backdrop itself is just more murders, as Inspector Archibond of Scotland Yard explains to our sleuths:

“I do not think I can adequately communicate to you the atmosphere of Scotland Yard at present, Miss Speedwell. There is always a sense of urgency, of duty, that the security and peace of the capital depends upon us. But now …” He spread his hands. “It is a snake pit. Man against man, department against department. Everyone wants to be the first to bring the Ripper to justice, so there is proper cooperation. We talk and theorize, but there is only superficial sharing of information. Everyone wants to develop the hypothesis that will bring this monster’s reign of terror to an end.” 

A passage like that is, among other things, a knowing wink in the direction of the Rippermania, as is plot’s inclusion of Prince Albert Victor, who was put forward in the 1960s as a candidate to be the Ripper, even though a) he had extensively documented alibis for the times of each murder and b) he was a notorious imbecile who couldn’t have successfully dismembered a bunch of bananas, much less a full-grown woman in pitch darkness. Raybourn’s characters make frequent droll references to the latter, in fact, when discussing the Prince’s visits to Club de l’Étoile:

“He wore no disguise?” I asked.

Archibond sighed. “Not only did he fail to wear a disguise, he took one of the Prince of Wales’ coaches.”

“Oh dear,” I murmured.

The three of us exchanged glances, our lips twitching in suppressed mirth.

“Heaven help us,” Stoker said, shaking his head. “The future King of England is a simpleton.”

A simpleton, perhaps, but also packed onto a train back to Scotland well before A Murderous Relation’s headlong plot reaches its climax; Raybourn has a far more complicated story to tell in these pages than merely re-heating one of the dumbest Ripper theories in existence. Instead, fans of the series get a taut and surprisingly savage set of very different family dynamics, a predictable but gripping narrative, and a marked increase in the sexual tension that’s always stretched between Veronica and Stoker. Long-time fans of the series won’t be disappointed.

—Steve Donoghue is a founding editor of Open Letters Monthly. His book criticism has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The American Conservative. He writes regularly for The National, The Vineyard Gazette, and The Christian Science Monitor. His website is http://www.stevedonoghue.com.