A Perilous Undertaking

London, 1887. Veronica Speedwell, a lepidopterist and adventuress, is called to the Curiosity Club, a ladies-only retreat for intrepid women. A visitor who gives her name as Lady Sundridge asks her to clear Miles Ramsforth, a society patron of the arts. Ramsforth has been convicted of brutally killing his mistress, the artist Artemisia, and will hang within the week.

The visitor is not who she says she is, and learning her true identity is only the first secret Veronica has to pry loose. She works with Revelstoke Templeton-Vane, called Stoker, an aristocratic natural historian with a scarred past of his own.

Their hunt for answers moves through a bohemian artists' colony and the city's opium dens, then on to Scotland Yard and several royal palaces. It also leads to the Elysian Grotto, a cave on the Ramsforth estate that is kept secret. Every discovery brings them closer to scandal among the highest ranks of Victorian society, and closer to danger for the two of them.

This is the second Veronica Speedwell mystery, a period investigation that plays fair with its clues. The banter between Veronica and Stoker is spirited and sexually charged. The tone stays playful even as the subject matter darkens, and royal intrigue runs through the plot, tied to Veronica's own complicated relationship with the crown. The Victorian detail is rich throughout.