The Dead Travel Fast by Deanna Raybourn

For the last couple of weeks I've been obsessively checking my local bookstore's stock online to see if Deanna Raybourn's The Dead Travel Fast just happened to get in early. Yes, I actually am that nerdy and it's much too late to do anything about it. But, in this case, the effort paid off as a nice, healthy stack of them awaited me on the "New Fiction" table when I dashed in from the rain on my way home from work. As you know, I am a devoted Lady Julia Grey fan. I adore that series and am anxiously awaiting the upcoming fourth installment--Dark Road to Darjeeling--due out this October. But when I heard she was working on a standalone historical set in Transylvania and featuring a would-be lady novelist and a mysterious count...well...I was equal parts intrigued and excited. Who knew what delights and promises it would hold?

Miss Theodora LeStrange has come to the end of her rope. When her grandfather and guardian passes away, her well-meaning if rather insipid brother-in-law takes it upon himself to determine what exactly is to be done with her. Terrified of what he will come up with, Theodora grasps at the nearest straw in the form of a letter from her old school friend Cosmina who now resides at Castle Dragulescu in Transylvania. She invites Theodora to come and stay in celebration of her approaching nuptials. A budding novelist, Theodora convinces her friend and publisher Charles Beecroft the experience will serve to inspire her imagination and fuel the novel she knows is lurking inside just waiting to be brought forth. Against their better judgement, her family and friends let her go and the adventure of a lifetime begins. Upon arrival Theodora is reunited with Cosmina and introduced to the aging Countess and her mysterious son--the newly appointed Count. In a land where the sinister is a daily occurrence and the horrifying merely commonplace, Theodora's imagination is more than stimulated. It is driven into overdrive as her Scottish pragmatism wars with the inexplicable and increasingly nightmarish events unfolding in this small Roumanian village at the edge of the world.


This was such an interesting read. It was at times exactly and not at all what I expected and my response to it evolved as the pages turned. I liked Theodora from the beginning. She is much more pragmatic, yet somehow less sure of herself than Julia Grey and I wondered how she would handle the--what seemed to me--clearly supernatural events at Castle Dragulescu. But just when you (and she) think you have the story and Count Andrei figured out, the narrative takes a meditative turn and you find yourself not at all sure. Perhaps it is merely smoke and mirrors and can all be explained away by an ancient grudge, a marital infidelity, or a genetic predisposition. And so the tale winds on, weaving back and forth between the mundane and the spectacular, never revealing its secrets. At first I was impatient to discover the truth, but it was when I gave myself up to the story that I enjoyed Deanna Raybourn's wonderfully gifted way with words. I was amazed at how seamless the writing and the dialogue were. Initially I wanted to like Andrei as much as I do Brisbane, but he is an entirely different breed of alpha male and not nearly as instantly likable. But he isn't meant to be, I don't think. Much more Rochester than Thornton from the word go. And once again, it was when I sat back and let it wash over me that I really was able to appreciate this novel for what it is--a pitch-perfect Victorian Gothic romance. And the ending was perfect. What a talent for endings Ms. Raybourn has and how much I look forward to each of her books--whatever style or genre they may be.

A Note: For Lady Julia Grey aficionados, there is a delightful little reference to that series hidden in The Dead Travel Fast. It left a happily satisfied smile on my face. See if you can spot it.


Linkage
Creative Madness Review
Garden in my Pocket Review
A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore...Review