A Perilous Undertaking (Veronica Speedwell #2)

A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a good book. The premise and characters were very interesting, and the author did a good job of describing Veronica and Stoker as well as the mystery they found themselves attempting to solve. I was intrigued and wanted to solve the crime right along with them.
I did have a bit of a hard time relating to Veronica, however. The book was narrated from her point of view, and she often seemed rather mechanical and out of touch with the people around her, even those she respected and considered her friends. It felt as though she could not empathize and was condescending on many occasions. Perhaps it was the author's intention for her to come across this way, but it made Veronica almost unlikeable at times. Most of the time she just seemed wooden. And because all of the action was narrated by Veronica, many of the situations the characters found themselves in felt as though something was missing. There were a few occasions when I wondered when something was taking place--I assumed it was in the evening but there was nothing to tell me, even when I went back and read again, so I was a bit confused. Veronica also spent too much time describing things that really had no bearing on the story, such as how to stuff a camel. That did not help with the flow of the story. It was almost as though too much attention was spent on things that really didn't matter and then important parts of the story were glossed over or just glanced upon.
I have not read the first story in this series, and would be interested to see if, after reading it, my opinion of this book and/or Veronica changes. I did feel as though, when events were mentioned that obviously occurred in the first book, things were not explained quite well enough. I know that the author cannot go into minute detail and rehash things that happened in the past, but readers should not be left feeling that the characters are sharing an inside joke and that they have missed critical information.
All in all, it was an interesting book, but I would recommend reading the first book before reading this one.


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