A Flaw in the Blood

Forgive me for the Star Trek reference, but the Queen Victoria of this book would fit perfectly in the twisted, deliciously evil realm of Star Trek's alternate universe. I gulped down this book in one sitting. It's a great thriller written by an author who did some research. Having read Victoria's letters, her "voice" is right on. I couldn't resist picking up this book because I've always been something of a royalty buff as well as a Trekkie. I've never read Barron's Jane Austen series, but I greatly enjoyed her twist on things as they might have been. Fans of the royal family may well be unamused, but just consider the whole thing an alternate universe and it might go down easier. I also enjoyed Barron's fictional characters Patrick and Georgie.

I have long been a fan of Barron's Jane Austen mystery series and so I awaited this book with great anticipation. It was a bit of a shock to find it quite different from her Austen series, but this isn't really a bad thing. All in all, it was a good effort from a skilled author and a promise of more to come. The great strength of the novel is its ability to transport the reader back to the days of Victoria and Albert. From the novel's afterword, it's obvious that Barron did her homework and it really pays off here. Her Austen novels are also very atmospheric so this wasn't a new quality to her writing but the setting is quite different from the Austen novels and serves to prove that Barron has the ability to master whatever time period she chooses. What astonishes most about this novel is the central plot. Barron takes the story of Victoria and Albert and turns it on its head. She does an excellent job of portraying Victoria as a woman unwilling to relinquish her power and I certainly hope the real Victoria was nothing like Barron's version of her because Barron has created on scary character in her. The novel is really at its strongest when it is told from Victoria's point of view and we get a chance to witness the twisted inner workings of her mind and her strained relationship with her children. As for her love for Albert, Barron portrays it in a chillingly obsessive manner which makes their marriage something of a less than romantic fairy tale. To speak any more of the subject is to give away far too much. Less strong, though, is the story of Patrick Fitzgerald and his ward, Georgiana Armistead. The two are ostensibly the real main characters of the novel but the inner workings of their minds, their hopes and feelings aren't as well written as those of Victoria. A great deal is alluded to about Patrick's past but what is given away is done in general terms. It would have served his character better, perhaps, to have some flashbacks to his past in which we see what he experiences in detail. We get these scenes when Victoria reflects on her childhood but not when Patrick reflects on his and it struck me as a bit odd. As for Georgiana, she is the least developed because little of the story is told from her perspective. The premise of the character is interesting and it's disappointing that she's not as well developed as she should be. What makes this novel so different from the Austen mysteries is the bald violence of it. The novel includes a very sadistic killer and seeing things through his eyes can be quite disturbing. His inclusion certainly lends the novel a darker tone. The character falls a bit flat, though, and could have done with some additional development. There are reasons for his actions but more detail of his past would have led to a better understanding of what motivates him to act as he does. The novel is solid and suspenseful and the concept is certainly unique but it doesn't entirely hit the mark. Th

A Flaw in the Blood by Stephanie Barron is a thrilling Victorian mystery. Irish barrister, Patrick Fitzgerald, and his ward Dr. Georgiana Armistead are on the run for their lives after the death of the Prince Consort, Albert. They are hunted throughout England and on the Continent by German Wolfgang van Stuhlen, but they have no idea who wants them dead or why. Much of the story is built on surprises in the plot, and I don't want to give too much away. Barron alternates chapters between Fitzgerald and Queen Victoria. Writing as the queen is a fabulous conceit, and Barron pulls it off with aplomb. Her fictional view into the queen's mind is delicious and frightening. The plot builds slowly, but as the threads come together, they tighten the plot making it a true masterpiece. Barron takes little known bits of history and re-imagines them with gleeful malice. I've always thought of Queen Victoria as rather boring and a bit stodgy, after this I'm off to read a biography. I look forward to Barron writing more books with this bent.

Stephanie Barron's "A Flaw in the Blood" opens in 1860. Something has caused Queen Victoria's Consort, Prince Albert, to fall into a deep depression. "He had wanted death. He had gone out that morning hunting for it." A year later, Albert is gravely ill, supposedly with typhoid (although his symptoms point to a far different malady). Victoria summons an Irish barrister named Patrick Fitzgerald to Windsor Palace. She makes no effort to hide her disdain for Fitzgerald, calling him "an uncouth lackey of the Irish rabble." Patrick incurred Victoria's eternal wrath in 1840 when he disseminated scandalous accusations implicating the Royal family in an assassination attempt on the Queen. Twenty years later, Victoria orders Fitzgerald to sign a paper stating that his statements were "nothing more than a fabrication of [his] own treacherous Irish mind." Patrick refuses, thus setting the stage for what proves to be a "battle royal." Patrick's ward is twenty-six year old Georgiana Armistead, a woman twenty years his junior with whom he has fallen in love. Her previous guardian, the late Dr. John Snow, was a legendary figure who traced the 1854 cholera outbreak in London to a particular water pump on Broad Street. Snow was a genius, whose work inspired Georgie to study medicine in Edinburgh. Now she chooses to treat the poorest patients in London's most wretched and unsanitary slums. Patrick had promised Snow that he would keep an eye on Georgie, but she is a fiercely independent individual who answers to no one but herself. Soon Patrick discovers, much to his woe, how ill-advised it is to ignore Victoria's commands. The Queen dispatches the sadistic Wolfgang Graf von Stuhlen and his henchmen to hunt down and kill Patrick, Georgiana, and others whom she deems a threat to her rule. Von Stuhlen is a malevolent and vicious sociopath who harbors a long-standing grudge against Georgie. He embarks on his mission with zeal, relentlessly pursuing his quarry across England, France, and Bavaria. Although most of the book is written in the third person, some revealing chapters are narrated by Victoria herself. These poignant passages offer insight into the Queen's traumatic history and complex psychological makeup. Victoria discusses her lonely and troubled childhood, her ascension to the throne, her ardent love for the moral and straight-laced Albert, the nine children she bore (some of whom bitterly disappointed her), and her determination to maintain her position at all costs. Barron portrays Victoria as an imperious, arrogant, and unforgiving monarch who is obsessed with silencing her enemies. Fitzgerald is a courageous and resourceful protagonist who harbors shocking secrets of his own. The gifted and idealistic Georgiana is willing to risk her reputation and even her life to fulfill her professional and personal responsibilities. Patrick and those closest to him know that they can never live in peace until they discover exactly what Victoria has taken suc

In 1861, amid rumors of typhoid, Albert, the Queen's Consort, expires after long days of illness. Devastated by the loss of her "Beloved", her "All in All", Victoria will soon cast herself into her greatest role to date, that of profoundly grieving spouse. But first she must attend to a nasty piece of business, forcing barrister Patrick Fitzgerald to sign a document renouncing a claim to throne to which he was witness twenty years prior. Fitzgerald refuses, earning Victoria's considerable enmity. As soon as Patrick leaves the castle to return to London, his coach is attacked, the driver killed, Fitzgerald and his companion, Edinburgh-trained physician Georgiana Armistead, barely escaping with their lives. Although Fitzgerald realizes the attack is not random, he has yet to understand the enormity of the danger to himself and his companion, returning to his offices the following morning to discover his law partner in a pool of blood, his skull smashed. Summoning help, Patrick goes in search of Georgiana, vaguely acknowledging a subconscious sense of alarm, but distracted in his anxiety to make sure the young woman is safe. Not at home, Georgiana has already repaired to the slums of St Giles, where she is operating to save the life of a fourteen-year-old streetwalker, victim of a careless procedure by a local quack. Pressing Patrick into service, the operation has barely finished when a group of paid thugs storms the tenement in search of Patrick and Georgiana. Barely escaping along a rooftop gutter, the men are dispatched after considerable violence; by then Fitzgerald has realized the necessity of leaving London for a safer place. With little choice, he repairs of a remote island, where his long-estranged wife is in the final throes of a debilitating and fatal disease, Patrick's resentful son, Theo, raging against his father's intrusive return. But safety is not to be found even in this solitary place, Patrick fleeing with a now ill Georgiana Armistead, barely escaping the clutches of the queen's man, Count von Stuhlen. A gentleman of no scruples, von Stuhlen has been tasked to kill the pair, although he has not yet ascertained the queen's purpose. In a plot that reaches across England, France and Germany, from the royal palaces to the slums, from drawing rooms to boarding houses, the quarry are always but a step ahead of von Stuhlen. Resorting to the most egregious acts to accomplish his mission for the queen, von Stuhlen is evil incarnate, the bitter, acquisitive face of power in pursuit of burying the truth at any cost. With unerring precision, the count stalks his prey, tracking their every move in a complicated puzzle that leads directly through the royal line to "a flaw in the blood" that will upset years of careful planning. Hunted across three continents with little money, a loyal servant and the occasional kindness of fate, Fitzgerald and Georgiana are relentless in their quest for answers- so relentless, in fact that they fail to perc