Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

Title: Silent in the Grave (Lady Julia Grey #1)

Author: Deanna Raybourn

Publisher: Mira 2006

Genre: Mystery

Pages: 511

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: TBR Pile; Monthly Motif -- March; 52 Books -- W27; New Author; Lucky 14 -- Visit the Country

"Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave."
These ominous words are the last threat that Sir Edward Grey receives from his killer. Before he can show them to Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent he has retained for his protection, he collapses and dies at his London home, in the presence of his wife, Julia, and a roomful of dinner guests.
Prepared to accept that Edward's death was due to a long-standing physical infirmity, Julia is outraged when Brisbane visits and suggests that her husband was murdered. It is a reaction she comes to regret when she discovers damning evidence for herself, and realizes the truth.
Determined to bring the murderer to justice, Julia engages the enigmatic Brisbane to help her investigate Edward's demise. Dismissing his warnings that the investigation will be difficult, if not impossible, Julia presses forward, following a trail of clues that lead her to even more unpleasant truths, and ever closer to a killer who waits expectantly for her arrival.

I don't know why it took me this long to finally start this series. It was an absolute delight. Right away I was taken in with the mystery of Lady Julia and her husband's death. Then we get the entrance of Nicholas Brisbane and a whole host of interesting side characters. I love that the reader is right along with Lady Julia in finding the truth in the case. She holds nothing back from the reader even if she does keep things from other characters. I loved how the truth eventually came out and the story ends. Or at least this chapter of Lady Julia's life is ended. I can't wait to read the next story.

Lady Julia Grey

#1 Silent in the Grave
#2 Silent in the Sanctuary
#3 Silent on the Moor
#3.5 Midsummer Night
#4 Dark Road to Darjeeling
#5 The Dark Enquiry
#5.5 Silent Night
#5.6 Twelfth Night
#5.7 Bonfire Night

Monthly Life Goals July 2014

Before I get to this month’s goals, let’s check in on June’s goals and my progress.

June Goals:

30 Day Challenge: Kids/Family Activities -- Success! I'm calling this one a success. We did a ton of activities and went a ton of places. Below are a few examples:
- Pool days (multiple)
- Playdates at the park, also playground visits
- Great America visits
- SJ Museum of Art
- Tech Museum
- Deer Hollow Farm
- 30 Day Challenge: Read every day -- Success! Some days it was only a few minutes, but some days it was an hour. I still read each day.
- Visit 6 local parks -- Fail... but we came close. We ended up visiting 3 parks: Rengstorff, Cuesta, Rancho San Antonio
- Knock off 10 items from our summer bucket list -- Success! We got our bucket list off to a good start!
- Have a date night with J -- Fail! Just didn't happen.
- Pinterest Challenge: Clean out/update Neverending TBR Board -- Success! I cleaned out the board a bit and edited my tags.
- Pinterest Challenge: Try 5 new crafting techniques/sketches/color inspirations -- Success! I completed a ton of cards this month.

30 Day Challenge: Meal plan entire month -- I hope to have the entire month of July's meals planned from the beginning.
30 Day Challenge: Daily picture book -- We're behind on out 100 picture book challenge for 2014. Hopefully this month will get us back on track.
Clean out twins' clothes -- We haven't done a full clean out in two years. This will be the perfect month to get rid of the too small. And we will know what to send back to Indiana and what needs to be bought for fall and next summer.
Update Paprika with all routine recipes -- I love using Paprika for recording my recipes, making meal plans, and creating a grocery list. Unfortunately, I don't have any of my tried and true recipes included. I need to get this app updated.
Finish two in progress television series -- I feel like I'm in the middle of way too many series, especially series that are no longer on the air. I want to make a view list and cross off two of those in progress series.
Pinterest Challenge: Complete 5 techniques, sketches, challenges -- Same as last month's challenge. It went so well, I thought I would do it again.
Pinterest Challenge: Get rid of 2 retired DSP boards -- I have completely reorganized my boards pulling out any example cards featuring retired DSP. I want to get rid of at least two of those boards this month.

Arthur: 37 Weeks

This past week was another bad one. I have no idea what is going on with Arthur, but he has decided to not sleep...

Likes: Standing, being held, eating

Dislikes: Sleeping in his crib, bread (weird, I know), sitting still

Sleeping: For whatever reason, we are yet again completely off our sleep schedule. Arthur refuses to be put into his crib to nap times and bed times. He cries and cries. What happened to my good sleeping baby? The other night we resorted to allowing him to sleep in our bed. Everyone's cranky about no sleep. We're going to keep working on it.

Eating: Still a great eater. He has eaten everything except for bread (not a big fan). We're attempting to experiment with more new foods and spices. So far, so good.

Playing: Lots of interaction between Arthur and the twins. He loves attempting to "play" with them. So cute!

Medical Milestones:

Waving -- Nope. Not yet.
Preference of right or left hand -- Not that I have noticed
Stranger anxiety -- Not really. He's never been a fan of random people picking him up. Those that he gets to know (give him about 20 minutes), he's fine with.