The Sixth Veronica Speedwell Mystery - An Impossible Imposter

It's been a while since I last visited with Veronica Speedwell and her paramour, Revelstoke Templetone-Vane (otherwise known as "Stoker"). I have been enjoying the adventures of Veronica and Stoker, from their first meeting in A Curious Beginning to their last book where they faced An Unexpected Peril.  Author Deanna Raybourn has taken these two on a turbulent journey, and they have certainly had their ups and downs - but here we are at book seven, and the two have finally reached a comfortable place in their relationship.  While each book features a fascinating (and fun!) mystery, it also allows the reader to follow along at the budding romance between the two lead characters.  So, it should be no surprise to anyone that I've been rooting for these two to get together.  But, as with any good drama, it's only a matter of time...

An Impossible Imposter opens innocently enough - and uniquely! Veronica and Stoker are headed home on a train ... with a baby!  Yes, you read that right.  A baby! Don't worry, though, you didn't miss anything.  The baby is not theirs.  No, they are simply bringing the baby home to its mother, a woman who could not acknowledge the baby as her own, being unwed, and so Veronica and Stoker had to facilitate a plan that would allow the world to think the woman was adopting the child and caring for it as if it were her own (all the while knowing it was her own!).  A rather odd beginning to a rather odd story.

Before you know it, Sir Hugo Montgomerie appears, asking Veronica to help him out with a private matter.  It seems a family with whom he is acquainted has a delicate situation for which they need some assistance - the Hathaway family has recently been surprised by the unexpected appearance of the first born son, who has been thought dead for over five years.  Jonathan Hathaway.  A man who Veronica happens to know.  Or knew.  She recalls that he died when a volcano erupted near Sumatra.  So, how then does a dead man suddenly reappear to his family?  Well, that is the very question Montgomerie would like Veronica to answer.  Thus, she and Stoker head off to the family estate, Hathaway Hall, so Veronica can see the young man for herself.  Only, Jonathan Hathaway is not the only thing "off" about this family.

Lady Hathaway may be old, but she still knows how to maintain a presence.  But her days as lady of the manor are numbered, as the current wife of her second child, Charles Hathaway, is determined to supplant her an fully take over the house.  And what Mary Hathaway wants, Mary Hathaway gets - including the suppression of Charles' younger sister's desires to study astronomy.  Euphemia wants to follow in her grandfather's footsteps, but Mary will not hear of it.  And then there's Jonathan Hathaway - the formerly deceased, now very much alive first son.  Who just so happens to be an imposter.  Oh, and did I mention that the imposter happens to be Veronica's husband?

Yes, this story definitely takes our favorite sleuthing duo on a lot of unexpected twists and turns (and you thought the last book placed them in unexpected situations!).  Veronica believed her husband dead, killed in the same volcanic explosion as Jonathan Hathway.  How was she to know he was still alive?  And how in the world can she explain this to Stoker?  Or will she be blackmailed into remaining silent to keep the imposter from revealing to the world Stoker's own secrets?  And what about that pesky little Eye of the Dawn jewel that is stolen from Lady Hathaway's chest of jewels?  Did the imposter take it?  Has Veronica been taken in by the imposter's lies yet again?  And will she and Stoker help him when the villains chasing after him show up at their doorstep, demanding the Eye of the Dawn in exchange for their own lives?

While there is no murder to solve in this book, Raybourn does not disappoint with a well-plotted mystery that has plenty of surprising twists.  This impossible imposter is definitely not who he appears to be, and the reader will find himself or herself constantly questioning what to trust and what not to trust.  But the story is thoroughly engaging, and the sudden appearance of Veronica's husband will certainly bring about some changes - whether they are good or bad, well, that remains to be seen.

A few elements of the story I did figure out, and I admittedly loved the "Baskervilles"-type setting (complete with the bog and the ghostly apparitions); but the constant questioning of Jonathan Hathaway's real identity, real motives, and his ultimate goal definitely kept me turning page after page.  Raybourn knows how to create suspense, and it's one of the reasons I love this series so much!  Can't wait for the next one to come out in paperback!

RATING:  10 Tasmanian tigers out of 10 for mystery, suspense, ghosts, imposters, and go many other Gothic elements that I can't help but love the story!