Book Review #54 - A Flaw In The Blood

I haven't read much of Stephanie Barron's work, but can say that of the few Jane Austen mysteries I've read, I've enjoyed her mixture of mystery, suspense and historical detail. A Flaw In The Blood has all three of the above ingredients without Jane Austen being the sleuth.

I always feel like such a snob when a book I enjoyed reading, and finished quickly, gets a poor review. It's as if I'm denying my own entertaining experience. While this was a definite page turner, mostly due to the romantic tension beween Georgiana Armistead, a controversial female physican, and Patrick Fitzgerald, an Irish attorney who is being hunted by Queen Victoria's henchman, Wolfgang von Stuhlen, for reasons unknown.

Georgie, as she is called by Patrick, is past the age of needing a guardian, but Fitzgerald considers her safety his responsibility. When Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, dies, a trail of destruction and murder that points to von Stuhlen indicates that both Georgiana and Patrick have become his targets. They flee to Europe and there, begin to unravel the reason why von Stuhlen and Queen Victoria might want them both eliminated.

The chase and suspense might make the book exciting to read, but, unfortunately, the plot and motive explaining it all is quite disappointing - silly even. von Stuhlen is practically a characture of the classic bad guy (he even has an eye patch!)and Victoria is portrayed as a narcisstic queen prone to hysterics, which may or may not be true. Barron's attempt at including actual history, and unfortunately a documented genetic mystery, doesn't work. She tried to do too much with what should have been a light-weight victorian mystery - a formula she has already proven can be successful. While I can't fault her for attempting to break away from a series, I hope she returns to the Jane Austen mysteries she writes so well.