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cimorene1558's review
4.0
I think this is my favourite of these books so far; none of the things that have bothered me about the other two came up here.
bookwormbev17's review against another edition
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
fern17's review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
drizcoll's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
These are perfect for winding down with a night time - sometimes I slightly lose sight of what is going on but they're still enjoyable.
kairosdreaming's review
3.0
This book is the third in a series. I haven't read the first two, but I don't feel that I missed out on all that much by not reading them. Just a bit of back-story.
Eleanor always seems to be where the action is. Or at least where something foul is afoot. She doesn't mean to be, it just happens. And when it does she feels compelled to do whatever she can to help. Despite local authorities not enjoying that help. So when a man is rescued from a dangerous bay, and tells of his family trapped in the nearby caves, once again, Eleanor has to find out what happens, before something terrible befalls the family.
Eleanor was not as much of a focus as I expected her to be in the book. Her niece actually plays a slightly larger role. They're both great characters. They have their own personalities and are strong and independent. I think that the men were actually a bit weaker. They all had some kind of flaw or dis-likable quality. But that also made them more real than the female characters. The bad guy I didn't find very menacing. There wasn't enough history to really understand or care about why the person was doing what they were doing.
I enjoyed the setting of the book. Taking place a few decades ago, it examined the relationships between the English and those of Indian descent and the turmoil between the races that was present at the time. It's actually what set the whole mystery in motion. That being said, despite it being charming, I found the first part of the book too slow in pace while the end was too rapid and didn't have enough explanation. It felt too quick to be real. And it lessened my enjoyment of an otherwise good mystery because of it.
I'm not sure if I'd go back and read the first two, or even more in the series. They were a nice cozy, but I think more ardent fans of Dunn would like them more.
The Valley of the Shadow
Copyright 2012
309 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2013
More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com
Eleanor always seems to be where the action is. Or at least where something foul is afoot. She doesn't mean to be, it just happens. And when it does she feels compelled to do whatever she can to help. Despite local authorities not enjoying that help. So when a man is rescued from a dangerous bay, and tells of his family trapped in the nearby caves, once again, Eleanor has to find out what happens, before something terrible befalls the family.
Eleanor was not as much of a focus as I expected her to be in the book. Her niece actually plays a slightly larger role. They're both great characters. They have their own personalities and are strong and independent. I think that the men were actually a bit weaker. They all had some kind of flaw or dis-likable quality. But that also made them more real than the female characters. The bad guy I didn't find very menacing. There wasn't enough history to really understand or care about why the person was doing what they were doing.
I enjoyed the setting of the book. Taking place a few decades ago, it examined the relationships between the English and those of Indian descent and the turmoil between the races that was present at the time. It's actually what set the whole mystery in motion. That being said, despite it being charming, I found the first part of the book too slow in pace while the end was too rapid and didn't have enough explanation. It felt too quick to be real. And it lessened my enjoyment of an otherwise good mystery because of it.
I'm not sure if I'd go back and read the first two, or even more in the series. They were a nice cozy, but I think more ardent fans of Dunn would like them more.
The Valley of the Shadow
Copyright 2012
309 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2013
More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com
bookwyrm_lark's review
3.0
Review originally published at The Bookwyrm's Hoard.
Carola Dunn is best known for her popular series of cozy historical mysteries set in the 1920s and starring the Hon. Daisy Dalrymple (later Fletcher.) Her Cornish Mystery series may come as bit of a surprise to Daisy fans. Set in Cornwall somewhen in the 1960s or ‘70s (well before cell phones and personal computers), the books’ heroine and amateur detective is Eleanor Trewynn, a widowed, middle-aged, and retired NGO aid worker living in the fictional (but very Cornish) village of Port Mabyn. Propelled by genuine concern for her fellow human beings and a fair share of curiosity, Eleanor occasionally finds herself involved in – and unofficially investigating – local crimes. In this, she is usually helped by her neighbor, artist Nick Gresham, and her niece, Detective-Sergeant Megan Pencarrow. The vicar’s wife and Megan’s boss, DI Scumble, are also recurring characters.
The Cornish Mysteries are a bit more serious and realistic than the Daisy Dalrymple books, which is not to say they don’t also contain moments of humor. But what really characterizes the Cornish Mysteries is Eleanor’s encompassing compassion, which is reflected in the author’s sensitive treatment of all the characters. Even Scumble, who started out a fairly unsympathetic character, reveals a more human side in this, the third book in the series.
In Valley of the Shadow, Eleanor, Nick, and Megan are out for a walk down to a cove when they spot a man in the water. Megan and Nick dive in to rescue him; on returning him to shore, they discover that he is young, Indian, and unconscious. When he finally comes to in hospital, he is only able to utter a few words – enough to let Megan know that his entire family is trapped in a seaside cave, and at least one is dying. (If you’re at all familiar with Cornwall, either from visiting or through books, you’ll know that its rocky coastline is riddled with caves; it’s what made Cornwall a smuggler’s haven for centuries.)
This revelation spurs two simultaneous efforts: to locate and rescue the young man’s family, and to find and bring to justice the smuggler who brought them to England and then callously abandoned them.
One of the things I really like about these novels is that Eleanor is such a normal person. Yes, she spent twenty-odd years travelling the world for the charity for which she worked, so she is more comfortable with people of different cultures and ethnicities than many of her neighbors. Her life in third-world countries has left her quite cavalier about things like locking her doors, and she has a little martial-arts training. But she’s also a typical late-middle-aged woman of her time: she sometimes forgets things, she tires more easily than a younger person, and sometimes she feels a little achy or creaky – for instance, when climbing stairs. Eleanor doesn’t have the keen understanding and nose for evil of Miss Marple or the irrepressible nature of Mrs. Pollifax; she’s just an ordinary, caring human being who never stops trying to help. It makes her more relatable, in a way.
I also appreciate Megan, a young policewoman in an era when that was still a rarity. She’s good at her job, loves her aunt, and has a prickly, attracted-but-disapproving relationship with the rather bohemian Nick. Valley of the Shadow introduces a new character who just might become a recurring one; I rather hope he does, as I quite liked him. And as I intimated above, I’m even warming up to Scumble who, despite his usual irritation with Eleanor and apparent insensitivity toward his underlings, proves in this novel to have a heart.
The only drawbacks to Valley of the Shadow are that the plot occasionally feels a little disjointed, and the pacing is a bit uneven – minor issues in an otherwise well-written novel. I enjoyed this mystery as much as I did the previous two. I’ve had to learn to be patient for the next installment, though, since Dunn doesn’t write these as frequently as she does the Daisy series. I’m looking forward to the next one whenever it arrives.
Recommended if you like: cozy mysteries, British villages
FCC disclosure: I borrowed this from the public library.
Read more of my reviews at The Bookwyrm’s Hoard.
Carola Dunn is best known for her popular series of cozy historical mysteries set in the 1920s and starring the Hon. Daisy Dalrymple (later Fletcher.) Her Cornish Mystery series may come as bit of a surprise to Daisy fans. Set in Cornwall somewhen in the 1960s or ‘70s (well before cell phones and personal computers), the books’ heroine and amateur detective is Eleanor Trewynn, a widowed, middle-aged, and retired NGO aid worker living in the fictional (but very Cornish) village of Port Mabyn. Propelled by genuine concern for her fellow human beings and a fair share of curiosity, Eleanor occasionally finds herself involved in – and unofficially investigating – local crimes. In this, she is usually helped by her neighbor, artist Nick Gresham, and her niece, Detective-Sergeant Megan Pencarrow. The vicar’s wife and Megan’s boss, DI Scumble, are also recurring characters.
The Cornish Mysteries are a bit more serious and realistic than the Daisy Dalrymple books, which is not to say they don’t also contain moments of humor. But what really characterizes the Cornish Mysteries is Eleanor’s encompassing compassion, which is reflected in the author’s sensitive treatment of all the characters. Even Scumble, who started out a fairly unsympathetic character, reveals a more human side in this, the third book in the series.
In Valley of the Shadow, Eleanor, Nick, and Megan are out for a walk down to a cove when they spot a man in the water. Megan and Nick dive in to rescue him; on returning him to shore, they discover that he is young, Indian, and unconscious. When he finally comes to in hospital, he is only able to utter a few words – enough to let Megan know that his entire family is trapped in a seaside cave, and at least one is dying. (If you’re at all familiar with Cornwall, either from visiting or through books, you’ll know that its rocky coastline is riddled with caves; it’s what made Cornwall a smuggler’s haven for centuries.)
This revelation spurs two simultaneous efforts: to locate and rescue the young man’s family, and to find and bring to justice the smuggler who brought them to England and then callously abandoned them.
One of the things I really like about these novels is that Eleanor is such a normal person. Yes, she spent twenty-odd years travelling the world for the charity for which she worked, so she is more comfortable with people of different cultures and ethnicities than many of her neighbors. Her life in third-world countries has left her quite cavalier about things like locking her doors, and she has a little martial-arts training. But she’s also a typical late-middle-aged woman of her time: she sometimes forgets things, she tires more easily than a younger person, and sometimes she feels a little achy or creaky – for instance, when climbing stairs. Eleanor doesn’t have the keen understanding and nose for evil of Miss Marple or the irrepressible nature of Mrs. Pollifax; she’s just an ordinary, caring human being who never stops trying to help. It makes her more relatable, in a way.
I also appreciate Megan, a young policewoman in an era when that was still a rarity. She’s good at her job, loves her aunt, and has a prickly, attracted-but-disapproving relationship with the rather bohemian Nick. Valley of the Shadow introduces a new character who just might become a recurring one; I rather hope he does, as I quite liked him. And as I intimated above, I’m even warming up to Scumble who, despite his usual irritation with Eleanor and apparent insensitivity toward his underlings, proves in this novel to have a heart.
The only drawbacks to Valley of the Shadow are that the plot occasionally feels a little disjointed, and the pacing is a bit uneven – minor issues in an otherwise well-written novel. I enjoyed this mystery as much as I did the previous two. I’ve had to learn to be patient for the next installment, though, since Dunn doesn’t write these as frequently as she does the Daisy series. I’m looking forward to the next one whenever it arrives.
Recommended if you like: cozy mysteries, British villages
FCC disclosure: I borrowed this from the public library.
Read more of my reviews at The Bookwyrm’s Hoard.
nonna7's review
4.0
Carola Dunn is one of my favorite "cozy" writers. I've enjoyed her Daisy Dalrymple series for years although I came to it in the middle so I have some catching up to do. However, this is the third in this series featuring Eleanor Treywynn, a senior citizen who has retired to a small Cornish village. I started following the series as soon as the first came out. Cornwall is known for it's smugglers. It's apparently an easy journey to France where smugglers could bring back cigarettes and French goods that had high taxes on them. These books take place in the 70's before cell phones and computers. A young man is found nearly dead in the sea. Megan, a detective sgt, a niece of Eleanor's (known affectionately at Nell) has taken some time off for a picnic with her aunt and a local artist. Eleanor keeps hoping that a romance will develop between Megan and the artist, but so far no luck! Megan jumps into the sea to save him. Two hikers who are nearby offer assistance. Since there are no cell phones, Eleanor has to hike back up the steep hills, find a hotel nearby and a telephone. The young man is delirious and mutters something about the rest of his family in a cave. Of course, this being Britain, the fog rolls in and doesn't want to leave. However, rescue boats get out and finally find the family trapped in a cave. The family is Indian although they had lived in Africa for many years. However, now that the African companies are independent, they are expelling Indian families who have lived there for generations. Despite having British passports, they are not allowed into Britain which does not want an excess of dark skinned people in their midst. (Sound familiar?) The book was a bit slow in spots, but finishes at a rousing pace as everything comes together. It's an interesting look at a particular location in Britain that, like Ireland, Scotland and Brittany in France, had a large Celtic population.
verityw's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this third book in the Cornish Mystery series and I'm hoping that there will be more.
I thought the plot in this was really quite good - although I had a hunch about part of the solution from fairly early on.
The main characters are all interesting and well developed - and there are enough trailing threads left in the running storylines that I'm hopeful that more books may appear.
I thought the plot in this was really quite good - although I had a hunch about part of the solution from fairly early on.
The main characters are all interesting and well developed - and there are enough trailing threads left in the running storylines that I'm hopeful that more books may appear.
matthew_p's review
2.0
The plot was pretty loose in this one. No need to continue with this series, in the event Dunn continues to write them.