A Ghastly Catastrophe Summary: Veronica Speedwell #10
A Ghastly Catastrophe: A Victorian Mystery of Blood and Illusion
In April 1890, natural historians Veronica Speedwell and Revelstoke “Stoker” Templeton-Vane are bored, head-colded, and cataloging taxidermy at Bishop’s Folly.
Then Scotland Yard arrives with a case that polite society wants buried: a young man found dead in a carriage outside Highgate Cemetery, his body drained of blood, two puncture wounds on his neck.
A Ghastly Catastrophe by Deanna Raybourn is the tenth Veronica Speedwell mystery.
It follows the pair as they trace a fake vampire, a secret occult society, and a pair of murders that powerful families are paying handsomely to keep quiet.
TL;DR: What You Need to Know
- The hook: A bloodless corpse and a whispered vampire rumor pull Veronica and Stoker into a confidential Scotland Yard investigation.
- The twist: The monster is entirely human — a former prep school teacher performing an elaborate vampire persona to control followers.
- The stakes: Two murders, an arsenic-poisoned steel tycoon, a cursed Elizabethan jewel, and a planned escape to America.
- The core themes: Science against superstition, performance as manipulation, class privilege covering up crime, and an equal partnership between two independent investigators.
- The ending: The conspirators turn on each other inside a Highgate crypt, and Veronica and Stoker walk away alive.
A Ghastly Catastrophe Summary (Spoilers Ahead)
Spoiler warning: the following section recounts the plot, including the ending.
Veronica Speedwell and Stoker are cataloging Lord Rosemorran’s collection when Detective Inspector Mornaday brings them a sensitive case. Maurice Quincey was found dead in a private carriage outside Highgate Cemetery, his corpse drained of blood with two puncture wounds on his neck.
Days later, Quincey’s boyhood friend Jameson Harkness opened his morning post, saw a dried plant specimen, and threw himself from a second-story balcony. Wealthy relatives on both sides moved quickly to suppress the scandals.
Their friend Judith “J. J.” Butterfield, newly fired from the Daily Harbinger, moves into a folly on the estate and joins the investigation. Newspaper archives reveal a third companion: Seward Johnson, private secretary to American steel tycoon Horace Von Hilsing.
All three men had attended meetings of a secret occult group called the Harpocrates Society, founded by a figure calling himself “Lord Ruthven.”
Veronica and Stoker visit Johnson at Von Hilsing’s mansion in Steel Square. He claims he barely remembers a single lecture and slept through it, but Stoker notices the house has no domestic staff and that travel trunks are stacked near the foyer.
Through Stoker’s brother Tiberius, they meet former inquiry agent Nicholas Brisbane and his wife Lady Julia. Brisbane, who is of Romany heritage, takes them to an encampment on Hampstead Heath.
There, fortune-teller Mother Magda reads Stoker’s cards, warns of misfortune and death, and presses a protective hagstone into his hand. An eight-year-old orphan named Thomas tells them he saw a woman in black put a finger to her lips as he fled Quincey’s carriage.
Thomas also admits he stole a “witch bag” from the body, containing a Saint Benedict medal, vervain, and a rabbit’s foot — evidence that Quincey died in terror of a curse.
An invitation then arrives from Lord Ruthven’s Highgate home. Veronica and Stoker are greeted by a woman in black named Asphodel, who serves tea from a two-chambered teapot and doses Stoker’s cup with mugwort.
Ruthven, pale and dramatic in black, tries to mesmerize Stoker with a gleaming ruby stickpin. Stoker feigns a trance, strips off his shirt to disarm the host, and forces Ruthven to end the visit.
In the conservatory, Veronica spots a massive wolfsbane plant and a rare tropical moth, identifying Asphodel as the source of the dried poison sent to Harkness. Peerage records then confirm the Scottish title Lord Ruthven went extinct in 1853, proving their host is an impostor.
At Highgate Cemetery, they find a crude alchemical altar marked with candle wax and blood. Near a sewer grate, Stoker identifies rust-colored encrustations that prove to be human blood, showing Quincey was killed in the sewers before his body was placed in the carriage.
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Ruthven next invites them to a midnight masked “Danse Macabre” ball. There, Veronica sees Asphodel wearing the Mortlake Jewel, a cursed Elizabethan artifact belonging to Von Hilsing.
When Ruthven tries to mesmerize Veronica in a private room, she pricks his wrist with a hatpin. She then unmasks the charade: face powder, hair dye, and a two-pronged stickpin used to fake vampire bites.
To identify him, Veronica and Stoker travel to Little Saints, a boys’ preparatory school in Surrey. Retired headmaster Professor “Batty” Baddlesmere recognizes “Lord Ruthven” from an old staff photograph as Miles Hegarty, a literature master dismissed a decade earlier.
Hegarty was a mediocre teacher obsessed with folklore and mesmerism who convinced impressionable schoolboys he was an immortal vampire. Vicar Clarence confirms the psychological hold he held over them.
Realizing Johnson must have stolen the Mortlake Jewel for Hegarty and Asphodel, Veronica and Stoker break into Von Hilsing’s mansion. In the master bedroom they find Von Hilsing’s decaying corpse.
A Marsh test on a scrap of fingernail proves he was slowly murdered with chronic arsenic poisoning. In the fireplace grate, Veronica finds a charred fragment reading “Greville.”
At the shipping offices, she learns Seward Johnson booked first-class passage to America aboard the steamship Greville. The manifest lists a second ticket booked in tandem under the name Miles Hegarty.
Stoker is then lured to Highgate by a forged note. Veronica scales the cemetery fence at night and interrupts an occult ritual in which Asphodel, wearing the Mortlake Jewel, prepares to sacrifice an unconscious Stoker before drugged disciples.
Veronica tackles Asphodel, but Johnson arrives with a revolver and forces both of them down into a damp undercrypt where Hegarty waits.
In the crypt, Veronica exposes the betrayal at the heart of the scheme. Johnson and Hegarty were secret lovers who planned to steal Von Hilsing’s fortune and the jewel and flee to America together, abandoning Asphodel.
When Maurice Quincey discovered the relationship and tried to blackmail them, they killed him in the cemetery sewers during a dark ritual, then sent botanical death threats to silence Harkness.
Outraged, Asphodel seizes a dagger and slashes Johnson’s throat, killing him. She takes the jewel and the gun and locks Hegarty, Veronica, and Stoker inside the vault.
Overcome with grief, Hegarty uses a hidden blade to cut his own femoral artery and dies beside his lover. Mornaday, J. J., and George arrive and smash the iron roof grate to free Veronica and Stoker.
Stoker survives Asphodel’s sacrificial blow only because the blade’s tip caught in Mother Magda’s hagstone. Later that night, Asphodel slips into Veronica’s chapel lodging.
She confesses how Hegarty manipulated her into creating the “Asphodel” persona, leaves the Mortlake Jewel for Veronica to return, and disappears into the night.
Mornaday takes official credit for solving Von Hilsing’s murder and recovering the jewel. J. J. writes a sensational freelance article, and Stoker finishes a secret project — a taxidermy unicorn built from a nineteen-hand draught horse — which they sell to fund their next expedition.
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Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Veronica Speedwell | Narrator and protagonist; a lepidopterist and detective who is the semi-legitimate daughter of the Prince of Wales. |
| Revelstoke “Stoker” Templeton-Vane | Veronica’s partner; an ex-naval surgeon, taxidermist, and natural historian. |
| Judith “J. J.” Butterfield | Investigative journalist and Veronica’s friend, who joins the case after losing her newspaper post. |
| Detective Inspector Mornaday | Scotland Yard officer who brings the confidential Highgate case to Veronica and Stoker. |
| Lord Ruthven / Miles Hegarty | Former prep school literature master who poses as an immortal vampire and founds the Harpocrates Society. |
| Asphodel | Hegarty’s accomplice; an expert in poisonous botanicals who poses as an ancient witch. |
| Seward Johnson | Private secretary to Horace Von Hilsing and Hegarty’s secret lover. |
| Maurice Quincey | First murder victim; a Harpocrates Society member who attempted to blackmail Hegarty and Johnson. |
| Jameson Harkness | Quincey’s best friend, who dies after receiving a dried botanical threat. |
| Horace Von Hilsing | American steel tycoon and owner of the Mortlake Jewel, murdered by arsenic poisoning. |
| Lord Rosemorran | Eccentric peer who employs Veronica and Stoker to catalog his collection. |
| George | Cockney hallboy at Bishop’s Folly whom Veronica trains as a junior assistant. |
| Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane | Crossover characters from the Lady Julia Grey series who assist with the Romany community. |
| Tiberius Templeton-Vane | Stoker’s elder brother, who provides social introductions. |
| Mother Magda | Romany fortune-teller who reads Stoker’s cards and gives him a hagstone. |
| Thomas | Eight-year-old Romany orphan who witnessed Quincey’s body and took his witch bag. |
| Professor “Batty” Baddlesmere | Retired headmaster of Little Saints who identifies Miles Hegarty. |
| Vicar Clarence | Local vicar at Peasgreen who confirms Hegarty’s influence over schoolboys. |
| Lady Rose | Lord Rosemorran’s youngest daughter, who trades information for ghost postcards. |
Quotes from A Ghastly Catastrophe
“I could no more live without him than I could live without my own heart.”
“There is nothing like the chance of a bloody death to heighten one’s appreciation of life and one’s senses.”
“We are not common, J. J. We are better than that. We rise above, and we do what we must because carrying on is what we were meant for.”
“When one fails to recognise the humanity in others, it is easy to make villains of them.”
“You see more than you admit, lordling. Remember my words, and the stone will protect you.”
“There is no greater power than to thwart death. We began by hinting at mysteries and rituals and matters beyond their ken. Miles told them that we had known one another for centuries, and they believed. They believed because they wanted to believe.”
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Book Details at a Glance
- Genre & Subgenre: Historical Mystery / Victorian Detective Fiction / Gothic Mystery
- Core Narrative Tropes: Fake supernatural gothic illusion, bickering partners-to-lovers, secret society, found family, cross-series cameo, arsenic poisoning whodunit
- Tone & Atmosphere: Witty, atmospheric, satirical, macabre, theatrical
- Primary Conflict: Veronica and Stoker must solve two linked, secretive deaths blamed on a vampire while unmasking a manipulative cabal without causing public panic or becoming victims themselves
- Pacing Style: Fast-paced and episodic, driven by dialogue, field investigations, break-ins, and escalating gothic confrontations
- ISBN: 978-0593815731 (ISBN-10: 0593815734)
- Pages: 336
- Book Structure: 34 chapters, framed by a humorous preface author’s note, a postscript author’s note, a note on the Rosemorran Collection, acknowledgments, and an about-the-author section; written as a Victorian memoir
