Brisbane and Lady Julia have been enjoying a wonderful 9 month long honeymoon when they are joined by Julie's sister Portia and brother Plum. They received a distressing letter from Jane upon the untimely death of her husband. With Jane getting ready to deliver her first child the March clan heads off to exotic Darjeeling. Upon arrival it becomes more clear that maybe Jane's husband's death wasn't merely an accident after all. Lady Julia is more than ready to jump into an investigation, helping out Brisbane, but he is still rather adamant that she remain out of his line of work. This of course causes trouble for the newlyweds and they come to find that now that the honeymoon is literally over, they'll have to begin to deal with real life. 
 There's been quite a gap for me in reading the Lady Julia series. But starting Dark Road to Darjeeling I realized how much I've missed reading about the Lady Julia and Brisbane and their family. I think the title of this one "Dark" says it all. True, all the stories thus far have involved some form of mystery or another and often they involve solving a family murder, but I found Dark Road to be the most morose of the group. The fun banter between Julia the other characters waylaid the depressing context of the story, but it wasn't completely successful in keeping everything light. I can't quite remember the others in the series being this dark. 
 Julia and Brisbane continue to be wonderful on page together and even though Julia looks as this investigation in a contest sort of way, I still just wanted them on page together throughout the whole thing. They find that they still have a lot to work on in their relationship, but that is the nature of marriage. It's nice to see how devoted they are to each other, even in their own way. 
 A lot happens in this book and I'm eager to read the last full-length novel and the other novellas in the series to catch-up completely.