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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
First introduction to this series starring Ian Rutledge. A survivor of the war, he has a few quirks and is trying to decide if he is capable of returning to work. Scotland Yard was giving him a second chance so he wanted to try again to be a good inspector. His first case back had many twists and hidden motives for him to sort out.
I enjoyed the book for the most part. It did tend to get bogged down in too many descriptive details, but I will probably read the next in the series at least.
At this point I feel I’ve just read too many war/Holocaust books so I will be trying to finish up the huntress and read something lighter.
Libby ebook through my library. Not all of the series is available.
As I was finishing it came up with an error and I couldn’t reload it. So I wasn’t sure I got the whole ending. Sigh so I just found it (a month later) on Hoopla and downloaded to read the last page. The trials of technology lol.
I enjoyed the book for the most part. It did tend to get bogged down in too many descriptive details, but I will probably read the next in the series at least.
At this point I feel I’ve just read too many war/Holocaust books so I will be trying to finish up the huntress and read something lighter.
Libby ebook through my library. Not all of the series is available.
As I was finishing it came up with an error and I couldn’t reload it. So I wasn’t sure I got the whole ending. Sigh so I just found it (a month later) on Hoopla and downloaded to read the last page. The trials of technology lol.
I kind of flipped flopped between 3 and 4 stars for this one. But it boiled down to being entertaining despite some plodding plot points.
It's difficult when a book has a great setting, main character, and intriguing concept, but the to-ing and fro-ing of that likeable main character within the cozy and oh-so-British town of Upper Streetham wears on your nerves.
I love the BBC. I'm a fan of cozy mysteries, and this book reads almost like a BBC detective story set just after the Great War. And the main character? Such potential for brooding angsty, and I won't ruin it for you, but a very cool psychological tic that makes for great inner conversations and really makes the murder mystery plot (whose main witness is a shell-shocked veteran much like Inspector Rutledge himself) extremely emotionally precarious for Rutledge.
But.....that pay off of delicious emotional angst isn't very deep. It kind of skims the shallows. Part of that for me was that, and especially for the female characters, there just wasn't much there. We get female POV charaters that we are TOLD have lots of depth and artistic talent (independent artist German-love Catharine Tarrant) and who are lovely, porcelain dolls who can only sit in dark drawing rooms and suffer pains of love and grief withholding secrets that can't possibly be kept secret forever when a Scotland Yard Inspector is there (Lettice Woods).
Then there's the bone-numbing repetition of certain phrases. I stopped counting how many times Rutledge or another character called him "the man from London". How many times do we have to have him go to some shop or house, introduce himself, have that minor character think to themselves "oh its the man from London" and then give him no new information but cast doubt on village trouble maker Mavers?
One or two of those would have been enough.
But like I said, I wavered. Rutledge himself has such potential, and I really liked his psychological tic, I just wanted more fleshed out characters around him and more emotional to-ing and fro-ing then actual physical him walking around the village so much (do these people not have jobs? everyone seems able to meet to exchange pleasantries in a dark room at any given moment)
I might pick up the next one hoping for some better characters, and just to see how Rutledge survives.
It's difficult when a book has a great setting, main character, and intriguing concept, but the to-ing and fro-ing of that likeable main character within the cozy and oh-so-British town of Upper Streetham wears on your nerves.
I love the BBC. I'm a fan of cozy mysteries, and this book reads almost like a BBC detective story set just after the Great War. And the main character? Such potential for brooding angsty, and I won't ruin it for you, but a very cool psychological tic that makes for great inner conversations and really makes the murder mystery plot (whose main witness is a shell-shocked veteran much like Inspector Rutledge himself) extremely emotionally precarious for Rutledge.
But.....that pay off of delicious emotional angst isn't very deep. It kind of skims the shallows. Part of that for me was that, and especially for the female characters, there just wasn't much there. We get female POV charaters that we are TOLD have lots of depth and artistic talent (independent artist German-love Catharine Tarrant) and who are lovely, porcelain dolls who can only sit in dark drawing rooms and suffer pains of love and grief withholding secrets that can't possibly be kept secret forever when a Scotland Yard Inspector is there (Lettice Woods).
Then there's the bone-numbing repetition of certain phrases. I stopped counting how many times Rutledge or another character called him "the man from London". How many times do we have to have him go to some shop or house, introduce himself, have that minor character think to themselves "oh its the man from London" and then give him no new information but cast doubt on village trouble maker Mavers?
One or two of those would have been enough.
But like I said, I wavered. Rutledge himself has such potential, and I really liked his psychological tic, I just wanted more fleshed out characters around him and more emotional to-ing and fro-ing then actual physical him walking around the village so much (do these people not have jobs? everyone seems able to meet to exchange pleasantries in a dark room at any given moment)
I might pick up the next one hoping for some better characters, and just to see how Rutledge survives.
I enjoyed the story, but it took a bit to get used to switching between Hamish's voice and the Inspector's. The solution seemed a bit all of the sudden / unexpected for my liking, but I'm eager to read the next installment.
This was good fun - great mystery and immersive and accurate historically.
A lot of flaws in the first book of the series IMHO. What bothered me about the first book was that the authors didn't describe the characters much beyond basic personality types.
I couldn't put this one down and couldn't figure out the mystery. I thought I would be grieving the loss of another Bess Crawford novel, but I LOVED this book and character.