• A Murderous Relation

  • Veronica Speedwell Mysteries, Book 5
  • By: Deanna Raybourn
  • Narrated by: Angele Masters
  • Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (1,783 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
A Murderous Relation  By  cover art

A Murderous Relation

By: Deanna Raybourn
Narrated by: Angele Masters
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.49

Buy for $21.49

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

A royal scandal’s connection to a brutal serial killer threatens London in this new Veronica Speedwell adventure from New York Times best-selling and Edgar Award-nominated author Deanna Raybourn.

Autumn 1888. Veronica Speedwell and her colleague Stoker are asked by Lady Wellingtonia Beauclerk to stop a potential scandal so explosive it threatens to rock the monarchy. Prince Albert Victor is a regular visitor to the most exclusive private club in London, and the proprietress, Madame Aurore, has received an expensive gift that can be traced back to the prince. Lady Wellie would like Veronica and Stoker to retrieve it from the club before scandal can break.

Worse yet, London is being terrorized by what would become the most notorious and elusive serial killer in history, Jack the Ripper - and Lady Wellie suspects the prince may be responsible.

Veronica and Stoker reluctantly agree to go undercover at Madame Auroreʼs high-class brothel, where a body soon turns up. Secrets are swirling around Veronica and the royal family - and it is up to Veronica and Stoker to find the truth, before it is too late for all of them.

©2020 Deanna Raybourn (P)2020 Recorded Books

Featured Article: Best Mystery Series—Listens That'll Take You Right to the Crime Scene


While a standalone mystery is great when you're in the mood for a one-and-done, sometimes you want to feed your craving with an entire mystery series—knowing there's a world and characters you can keep coming back to for the satisfaction of solving crimes. With audiobooks, you get the added bonus of sinking deeper into the setting, clues, and suspects as the story is performed for you, so you'll feel like you're alongside detectives, ready to bust a case.

What listeners say about A Murderous Relation

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,369
  • 4 Stars
    333
  • 3 Stars
    67
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,386
  • 4 Stars
    164
  • 3 Stars
    21
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,171
  • 4 Stars
    303
  • 3 Stars
    75
  • 2 Stars
    11
  • 1 Stars
    5

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

#Stoked

Without doubt, Revelstoke Templeton-Vane is the most delicious hero I’ve ever read. He is all things manly and brave and drool-inspiring, wrapped up in romantic notions and poetry. If I said I read these books only to spend copious amounts of time with Stoker, I doubt anyone here would question that it is indeed time well spent. However, I find Veronica Speedwell to be, if not as delicious to my heterosexual inclinations, quite as fascinating; she is a woman who knows her own mind and body, and unabashedly chooses to do as she wishes. If only there were more women like her in the world at large, Beyoncé’s “Run the World” would be a literal interpretation of modern life.
I will encourage my daughter to read these novels as she gets older, and I encourage you to do the same: feed our girls Speedwell from the same hand we feed them Bennet and the Marches.

PS. If none of the above beseeches you to give the Veronica Speedwell Mysteries a read, the Victorian-era cursing may provide the needed push. “Bloody Bollocking Hell” and “Flaming Hades” have been added to my vocabularic (is that a word??) repertoire, amongst others.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

More romance than mystery.

I enjoyed the first book in this series, but Veronica has become way too horny for me. The first part of the book is mostly Veronica talking about how much she wants to sleep with Stoker. I prefer mystery to romance, so I’m finished with this series.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Butt Jokes & Plot Holes

This story has the same heroes and villains as the last book, and very nearly the same plot. On top of that, the plot is either too obvious or full of holes. For example, the clever proprietress of a private club full of royalty and secrets unbelievably doesn't know that you can eavesdrop through the vents of her establishment, and apparently no one has ever tried it before our heroes attempt it. Also, our extra smart protagonists are imprisoned for days before they suddenly realize they can just climb out the window. Who needs to plan a harrowing and intriguing escape when the author can just bail you out? Convenient!

I also found the Anglophilia to be so over the top as to be farcical. That and the humor about phalluses and "African asses" didn't do it for me. I know that this series is supposed to appeal to a younger audience, but so young that they're still laughing at the word ass? I bet that even younger me would feel that my intelligence had been insulted.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

This book = more mystery and less heat

And the mystery was just okay, so the absence of heat between Stoker and Veronica was a let down. My least favorite in the series thus far, although an enjoyable listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of Her Best . . . So Far

How can an author raised in Texas, and then educated at the University of Texas, do so very, very well with the British vocbulary and dialoge? The British have a way with words, and Ms. Raybourn has, once again, wonderffully captured that way. The dialogue between Veronica and Stoker is, to me, still the highlight of these books, followed by Veronica's observations and reactions, spoken in Britishese. The plot continued with just one more adventure/mystery that I thought would end the book, but, thankffully, did not. I hope Ms. Raybourn writes #6.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Couldn't finish this one

It is full of filler nonsense that was too irritating for me. Add that to the weir up-voice-inflection that the narrator uses constantly in every sentence, I had to throw in the towel.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Love Veronica Speedwell series but not this one

I loved the Veronica Speedwell series from the first book, have bought them all, and am always excited before starting a new one. I've even listened to the others twice. But I was so disappointed in this one. The plot line, such as it is, is boring and in some ways simply repeats a plot line from an earlier book. I felt like almost nothing interesting happened in the entire book. Except for the ending, I never cared about the story, Also, while I enjoy the way Angele Masters embodies Veronica perfectly, as to the other characters, she simply doesn't have the range of voices and characterizations that, for example, Davina Porter or Barbara Rosenblat provide (although those two are so extraordinary very few narrators compare). All of Masters' male characters kind of sound the same. I'll keep going with this series because I love Veronica Speedwell and her partnership with Stoker, but I'm definitely not a fan of this one.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing.... AGAIN!

I have re-listened to this series 3 times, and was so happy to add this new book to my third round of listening. There is some thing so endearing about all of the characters and the way they connect to one another, obviously with Veronica and Stoker‘s relationship being the most fun. I’m looking forward to starting the series over for the fourth time. I tell everyone I can about these books, what a talented writer Ms. Raybourn is & what a spectacular narrator Angele Masters is. I found the authors note at the end to be a very sweet and thoughtful inclusion. Can’t wait for the next book in the series. Excelsior!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

My least favorite of the series

Because of COVID I have been using audibles as an escape, falling mostly into “brain candy” stories. The Veronica Speedwell and Julia Gray books are great for that purpose and I find the narrators excellent (esp the Lady Gray narrator).
This book is my least favorite of the series, and If it had been the first I likely wouldn’t have moved on to the others. Personally, I found the story silly and it didn’t tie together well, which I think is evident in the forced dialogue at the end of the book - ritually explaining the back story because it just doesn’t naturally flow.
Despite my feelings about this book, I find the series entertaining and a nice break from the seriousness of current circumstances. I think if these books are accepted for what they are, a slightly more in-depth Harlequin Romance Novel, they will be enjoyed. If one is looking for quality fiction, you may find yourself disappointed.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Always witty, always great!

Another amazing book, read so well and leaving you wanting another! Veronica and Stoker are back at it with intrigue and adventure and their ridiculous, perpetually thwarted romance.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful