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cimorene1558's review
4.0
Two novellas, The Assize of the Dying and Aunt Helen. Well worth reading if you like Ellis Peters or good, classic English mysteries!
stefhyena's review
3.0
This was an OK read apart from a few flaws. I enjoyed the second story much, much more than the first. I guessed the "solution" both times but both had enough twists to be entertaining nevertheless. In the first story I hated that the "intrepid heroine" becomes a dumb and useless mess the minute she hooks up with a man. She does all this important work setting up a trap for the murderer or whatever and then literally loses interest the moment her love interest appears in her sights. Really?
Both stories had too few women and would not pass the "Bechdel test". Both had the inevitable romance that Ellis Peters favours and the over-the-top emotional content (at least mercifully brief). The second story is relatively predictable in terms of the solution but as I said there are some twists (more of a "how-dunnit" than a "whodunnit") and it's more of a psychological study. It falls short of being anything complex and critical enough to satisfy me but it makes some interesting points.
There's a passively misogynist tone to both stories that seems surprising in a woman author of the 90s. At least the writing itself was good.
Both stories had too few women and would not pass the "Bechdel test". Both had the inevitable romance that Ellis Peters favours and the over-the-top emotional content (at least mercifully brief). The second story is relatively predictable in terms of the solution but as I said there are some twists (more of a "how-dunnit" than a "whodunnit") and it's more of a psychological study. It falls short of being anything complex and critical enough to satisfy me but it makes some interesting points.
There's a passively misogynist tone to both stories that seems surprising in a woman author of the 90s. At least the writing itself was good.
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