‘Til Death Do Us Part is a gothic Victorian romance that features a shrewd businesswoman and a scarred, brooding mystery novel author. There’s a creepy mansion, lots of feminism, and a plot that revolves around Victorian mourning customs. It had me at “tear catcher.”

Calista runs an agency that introduces single people to each other in a series of salons held at her home. In order to keep the business thriving, she has to be completely respectable. She’s horrified to discover a series of mourning trinkets left in her home, apparently by an obsessed stalker (a mourning ring, a tear catcher, and a coffin bell).

Luckily for Calista, one of her clients has a protective brother, Trent, who investigates Calista to see if her business is legitimate. Trent is famous for writing a series of detective novels starring a character named Clive Stone. Trent has given up on matrimony for himself due to scarring on his face, but he hopes his sister will find happiness. He’s also quite fascinated by Calista, and offers to help her figure out who her stalker is.

The best aspects of the novel were the compelling characters (the supporting characters were as interesting as the leads) and the gothic atmosphere. Honestly, any plot that involves tear catchers and coffin bells is going to be at least a partial winner with me. There are mediums and a creepy elevator and salons and carriages – all the things I love from gothic settings, plus a fight in a funeral parlor. I also liked the fact that Calista does in fact trip on her skirts periodically – it’s a realistic touch in a character who doesn’t have experience running or fighting.

I was also a sucker for the novel because of its focus on Victorian mourning customs. I learned a lot about these customs when I read The Bronte Cabinet, but somehow I completely missed the tear catcher thing. Apparently they are mentioned in writings from ancient Persia, the Bible, and Rome, and the Victorians loved them. Tear catchers were designed with a special stopper that allowed tears to evaporate very slowly. When someone died, a mourner would catch their own tears in the bottle. When the tears evaporated, the mourner was reminded that their time of mourning was over.

Above all, the running bit about the new female character in Trent’s mystery (Wilhelmina) is funny while also reinforcing the feminist feel of the book. Almost everyone who meets Trent has an opinion about Wilhelmina. Women love her, while men fear that she’ll take over the story. Some men urge Trent to make her a villain, others to have Trent kill her off, but all urge him not to “waste” too much time on her. “It’s all very well to insert a woman into the plot, but we don’t want Clive Stone to get sidelined into a romance,” one of them says. It’s funny (because of course the reader is totally digging the romance), it’s clever, and it’s a constant reminder that the female characters are living in a world that wants to push them to the margins.

There’s plenty of murderous conflict in the story, but the romance itself is pretty conflict-free. The only problem is that there doesn’t seem to be any reason that these people aren’t engaged by the end of the first chapter. Given Trent’s respect for Calista and the lack of obstacles to their marriage, their first sex scene seems improbable to me. It’s a perfectly sexy scene but it seemed wildly out of character for two people who are very invested in respectability and who don’t have any barriers to having sex in a socially sanctioned manner. The fact that Trent doesn’t propose immediately after the act floored me; it’s simply not consistent with anything we know about this person. What I did like about the romance was the deep mutual respect and trust between Calista and Trent. This is a book in which Smart Is Sexy, and I ADORE books in which a person’s intelligence is their most attractive feature.

So why a C+? Ultimately, this novel doesn’t completely deliver as a mystery. The twist comes out of nowhere. A good twist leaves you thinking, “Oh my gosh, I should have realized it all along! There were so many clues, but I just didn’t put them together!” This twist just left me going, “Oookay, that was …weird.” Additionally, I was annoyed that Calista didn’t play a more prominent role in solving the mystery. After seeming like such an intelligent and forceful character, she’s pushed into Trent’s shadow considerably on the mystery front. She’s still a compelling character, just one who spends more time at home fretting and less time figuring shit out.

On the whole, though, I enjoyed this book. I’m a wimp with regard to romantic suspense, but this book had just enough mayhem to keep the story moving and not so much mayhem that I felt the need to hide under the covers. I’m biased in its favor because I love me some gothic shit like nobody’s business. Even if this isn’t your catnip, you will probably find it to be a nice comfortable read. I’d grade it much higher if the last third of the book matched the promise of the first third of the book.