This book has all the familiar characters and situations of a Victorian mystery, but it feels completely fresh. Partly this is because the details of the train crash, and its aftermath, and the family relationships, are so compelling. I very much liked the character of Paul, his dedication to his profession of medicine and his reticence in other areas. As a writer of Victorian mysteries (with an emphasis on technology) myself, I admire greatly the craft with which the story played out within the context of an accurate historical setting. I'm very glad to have read it. ( )

After another season in London, Lady Elizabeth Fraser is one her way home when she is ijuried in a train wreck. After meeting railway surgeion Paul Wilcox and newspaperman Tom Flynn she becomes involved in a conspiracy of many years in the making.
A quite slow paced but interesting mystery with some well-developed characters. ( )

I loved everything about this book. The setting, the writing, the characters, and the mystery. ( )

I enjoy mystery stories very much. I do not read much historical fiction, but the premise sounded intriguing. There is a lot to learn about the railway business in the 1800's. The story concerns a train accident, that may or may not be sabotage. As Elizabeth Fraser becomes more entwined in the story, she must figure out if there was an act of sabotage, and if more are to come. Railway agents are being murdered, and it feels as though someone is trying to bring down the railways.

I thought the mystery was a solid one. There is also an element of romance, but it was secondary to the mystery. The pacing of the story was a little slower that I would like, but it did seem to fit with the setting of the story in the 1800's.

I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley ( )

This novel centres around the aftermath of a horrific railway crash in 1874, which the eponymous lady, Elizabeth Frazer, survives together with her mother. The drama of this opening section is not quite matched throughout the novel, though there is a gripping trial sequence later on. There is rather over-complicated and somewhat implausible plotting going on in the background, which underpins the train crash, the trial and a number of incidents in Elizabeth's past history. The novel's title perhaps makes it sounds rather more gothic/Wilkie Collins than it is. While the author has clearly done a lot of research, I did see a couple of errors: a reference to characters discussing the "latest Dickens installment", four years after he died; and the possible trial sentence being transportation to Australia, when the last such transportation took place in 1867. Finally, I was baffled by a reference in the author's note to a character not present in the novel: "My sadistic Dr. Wharton Sinkler was a real person, and he did wield a hot poker in the courtroom, although he lived in the 1890s in America. But he was too good to leave out". Well, she did leave him out, at least in the published version. Overall, though despite these annoying errors, I enjoyed this and would read more by this author - her follow up novel described on her website sounds intriguing. ( )