A Whisper of Death by Darcy Burke

 

Setting: Victorian London, 1868

Main characters:

HADRIAN BECKET. The intelligent and curious Earl of Ravenhurst is determined to find the man who stabbed him and left him for dead. The attack left him with something else--psychic visions of past events when he touches certain objects; visions that he thinks might be others' memories. And some of those memories are from the man who tried to murder him.

TILDA WREN. 25 and a self-proclaimed spinster. She lives with her grandmother and works as a private investigator with the skills she learned from her father who worked for Scotland Yard. Hadrian hires her to help him find his attacker; she's even more invested in their investigation when they discover the same man might have also murdered her grandmother's cousin.

My thoughts: Despite their different backgrounds, these two characters work really well together. (Something that probably would not have happened in real life.) Hadrian is deferential to and respectful of Tilda and her investigative ablilies while he struggles to understand and make use of his own new psychic gifts...or curse, as he calls them. And Tilda is down-to-earth, clever, and unshirking. I liked them both. I also really like that Victorian time period! Burke includes fun historical details, and her novel is well-paced and suspenseful. It's an entertaining mystery and I look forward to reading the next book.  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Reading!