Summary: A Portrait of Peril (Victorian Mystery book 5) by Laura Joh Rowland
London,
October 1890. Crime scene photographer Sarah Bain is overjoyed to marry
her beloved Detective Sergeant Barrett--but the wedding takes a sinister turn
when the body of a stabbing victim is discovered in the crypt of the church.
Not every newlywed couple begins their marriage with a murder investigation,
but Sarah and Barrett, along with their friends Lord Hugh Staunton and Mick
O'Reilly, take the case.
The dead man is Charles Firth, whose profession is
"spirit photography"-- photographing the ghosts of the deceased. When
Sarah develops the photographs he took in the church, she discovers one with a
pale, blurred figure attacking the victim. The city's spiritualist community
believes the church is haunted and the figure is a ghost. But Sarah is a
skeptic, and she and her friends soon learn that the victim had plenty of
enemies in the human world--including a scientist who studies supernatural
phenomena, his psychic daughter, and an heiress on a campaign to debunk
spiritualism and expose fraudulent mediums.
In the tunnels beneath a demolished jail, a ghost-hunting
expedition ends with a new murder, and new suspects. While Sarah searches for
the truth about both crimes, she travels a dark, twisted path into her own
family's sordid history. Her long lost father is the prime suspect in a
cold-case murder, and her reunion with him proves that even the most determined
skeptic can be haunted by ghosts from the past.
My review of this cozy mystery
When crime
photographer and news reporter Sarah Bain gets married to
Detective Sergeant Thomas Barrett, the ceremony
gets interrupted by a murder. The victim is a photographer specializing in
taking scam photos of ghosts. Sarah investigates the technology and tricks used
to con grieving people.
A Portrait of Peril
is book 5 in the Victorian Mystery series by Laura Joh Rowland, published by Crooked Lane Books.
The setting is London 1890 and we follow newspaper photographer Sarah
Bain, her police husband and her news photography/reporter team as they
investigate how some members of the spiritualist community use a combination of
new technology and tricks to con grieving people. Sarah and Thomas’ wedding
ceremony is interrupted when
a scam photographer is found murdered in the church crypt. Later his publisher is found dead too. A member of Sarah’s team is standing over the body with blood on his hands and he ends up in jail charged with the murder. Besides investigating the two murders, Sarah secretly looks into the murder case relating to her own family.
Main character is crime photographer and reporter Sarah Bain. She is very self sufficient and has a hard time controlling her temper and struggles with the relationship with her late mother. She seems a complex and believable character who is my favorite of this story.
Supporting
character is detective Sergeant Thomas Barrett. He seems a bit bland to me, and
I struggle to connect with him. But I picked up on his deepest respect/fear for
his mother. I wonder what that might mean for his relationship with fiercely
independent Sarah.
I enjoyed how this story starts where similar reads have ended- with marriage. I found it strange and surprising that Sarah and Thomas didn’t find it terribly disturbing to have their wedding ceremony interrupted by a murder. They seemed to go on with things like on a normal day.
The plot contained details
of previous stories which made it function as a standalone, but I would have
preferred to read the series from the beginning to get to know the characters
and follow their development through the series. As I jumped in at book 5, I felt
I had missed out on this.
My favorite part of the story was descriptions of the
living arrangements with Sarah’s group of unlikely friends and co-workers. The least favorite part was descriptions of an
autopsy procedure.
Anyone who loves historical crime
fiction will enjoy this. As will fans of Laura Joh Rowland. Similar authors to
explore might be Anna Lee Huber or Erin Lindsey.
Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and
NetGalley for this opportunity to share my honest review. All opinions are
completely my own.
Conclusion: A
Portrait of Peril is the interesting and entertaining story about a wedding
ceremony interrupted by the murder of a photographer specializing in ghost
photos to con grieving relatives.
Rating: 3 stars / 5
Where to get your copy
Book Details
Publisher : Crooked Lane Books (January 12, 2021)
ASIN : B0871KXYY6
About The Author
Laura Joh Rowland is a bestselling author of historical mystery novels. Her newest series stars Miss Sarah Bain, a photographer in Victorian London. The latest book is The Hangman's Secret. The Woman in the Veil will be published January 7, 2020. Laura's previous series, which is set in medieval Japan and features samurai detective Sano Ichiro, has been published in 21 countries, been nominated for the Anthony Award and the Hammett Prize, won RT Magazine's Reader's Choice Award, and been included in The Wall Street Journal's list of the five best historical mystery novels. Laura has also written a historical suspense series about Charlotte Bronte, the famous Victorian author. Laura holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan. She is a former aerospace scientist, a painter, and a cartoonist. She lives in New York City with her husband Marty. http://laurajohrowland.com/
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