Reviews

Caroline Minuscule by Val McDermid, Andrew Taylor

esyb's review against another edition

4.0

I have listened to two different audiobooks of this and enjoyed both.

nocto's review

4.0

My expectations were that this would be a pretty traditional mystery. As usual I'm not quite sure where the expectations come from though probably from the fact that the later Taylor's I've read have had traditional mystery elements at their hearts even if that wasn't usually all they were. I got thrown by the story veering off the path of a regular mystery and becoming a book in which the protagonist, history postgrad William Dougal, is more of a committer of crimes than a solver of them. Having my head and expectations messed with by books is always a good thing though and I really enjoyed this tale, never having a clue where it was going to end up. I know that there is a series featuring Dougal and I wonder how on earth Taylor follows this book up. It'll be fun finding out.

mayhap's review against another edition

2.0

This turned out to be a sort of stealth reread, since before I got to the second chapter I had a sudden vision of exactly how it ended, without any particular memory of what happened in between. Not so very much, as it turned out--the only mystery-solving takes place in a single and complete flash of insight that happens outside of Dougal's POV and is resolved before he even knows about it. It isn't often that I find myself comparing books disfavorably to The Da Vinci Code in any respect.

The real action of the book consists of how circumstances conspire to set Dougal on a path of crime that he wouldn't have cold-bloodedly applied himself to, in which respect it reminded me a little of some of Ruth Rendell's standalone crime tragedies. As an introduction to a purported series character I find it unusual and fairly offputting, and having inadvertently begun the series for a second time I find myself once again disinclined to continue the series, although I wouldn't necessarily avoid picking up another book by the author.