A Grave Celebration

Lady of Ashes Book 6

By: Christine Trent

Narrated by: Marnye Young

Violet Harper and her husband Sam are attending the long-anticipated opening of Egypt's new Suez Canal. The canal is the mastermind of the brilliant French engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps. Fireworks, galas, and canal cruises are all part of the planned festivities at ports along the way. Tensions abound across the various European delegations in attendance. The Prussians, Dutch, French, British, Austrians, and Russians all have political grievances against each other, made worse by internal struggles inside Egypt itself.

All of this animosity is forgotten, though, in the midst of clinking glasses and deafening cheers. That is, until a seemingly innocent Egyptian is found stabbed during an evening of fireworks.

To keep the grisly affair out of the international newspapers, de Lesseps and the Egyptian viceroy, Isma'il Pasha, insist that there be no investigation, but Violet is determined to make a quiet inquiry. Who may have wanted the man dead? Or, rather, who didn't have hatred for the French, whose total mastery of the Suez Canal meant they would be controlling canal shipping for the foreseeable future? Was the man the simple victim of a local criminal? Or is someone conducting a vendetta against the great man de Lesseps himself?

When a delegate's servant is also found murdered, it becomes obvious that there are evil forces among the revelers, who will stop at nothing to keep Violet from discovering the truth.

©2016 Christine Trent (P)2017 Twopence Press, LLC

very interesting series

I have enjoyed this entire series of books. I love historical fiction and I like how the author does an afterward to let the reader know any details she changed. I have particularly enjoyed learning about funerary customs and practices as woven into the storyline.

Better Narrator in Some Ways, Decent Story

I have listened to all of these books. The previous narrator did a very good job with British accents, but her American accent was so cartoonishly atrocious as to jar you out of the story. In fairness, some of this arose from the author's terrible American dialogue, but the new narrator is skilled and smart enough to still make them sound like real people. Overall, I think I would pick this narrator as my favorite. In terms of story, it is true that there is one serious and perplexing continuity problem from the last book that prepares the next book to go in a direction I personally dread. We'll see if I listen to more.

I love a good mystery

Full disclosure, I started with this book and not with the first book in the series. It took me a few chapters to really dive into the characters, but the narration by Marnye Young really helped bring the characters to life and establish who’s who. I enjoyed the plot, and will likely go back and read/listen to the other books in the series.

Very disappointed

I loved this series but with this new narrator and story outline, truly doesn’t flow from last book in series.

Grave dissapointment

Interesting facts looking for a story.Too convoluted,non believable and erratic plot Not her best.

New narrator ruins the book

The new narrator's sing-song accent and bizarre cadence is distracting, making this volume almost impossible to listen to. The first 30 minutes, I wasn't even sure if I had purchased a book in the same series. Really disappointing.