Reviews

The Paperback Sleuth--Death in Fine Condition by Andrew Cartmel

sophie______a's review against another edition

lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

rkaur's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

childfreebooks's review against another edition

3.0

This was a fun book to read! Paperback books and casual killings and fun. Main character is young so kids a non topic for her but look out for a few older childless/free minor characters. I liked that the main character stayed true to herself all the way through 

myungzion's review against another edition

challenging funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

i like that the main character is kind of a dickhead lmao her inner monologue GEEKS LMAOOO. i love that she puts her obsession w paperbacks over literally almost everything else, including her own personal safety 💀💀 v fun read 

dravenangel's review

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

celestialwillow's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.0

No.  I will be sticking with the Vinyl Detective in the future, not this spin off.

bexellency's review

1.5

Oof, not good.  I quite like the Vinyl Detective so happily picked up this book in a different Cartmel series.  Except it’s not different.  With the Paperback Sleuth set in the same world it reads like fan fiction, bad fan fiction.  What a bummer!

saltwaterbells's review against another edition

1.75

not as fun or as murder mystery-ish as I expected it to be and the main characcter felt a little bit like a caricature. you could definitely tell she was written by a male author. the writing was decent though i guess.

itsonmytbr's review

5.0

Cordelia is not the sort of narrator you necessarily like, or even root for. She’s devious and scheming and absolutely obsessed with herself. She’s fascinating. I didn’t care if good things happened to her, I’d even have been happy to see her in prison just so I could watch her interact with that environment, but I didn’t want to stop listening to her. There could be less masturbating in her landlord’s bathtub, but the constant coitus interruptus is pretty funny.

Paperbacks are the name of the game. Everyone is looking for fine condition crime paperbacks from the 60s. Cordelia wants them enough to set up scams to get them, and later even to housebreak and steal them. She thinks nothing of selling her stolen books and introducing her client and her burglary victim. She’s monstrous and fantastic. She’s in big trouble.

The only things Cordelia cares about other than her paperbacks are weed and a Woman she has seen at book sales. Weed is the plot device that started this book really going, and I’m hoping The Woman will start the next one. This is definitely going to be a series. Might even be a series already, but I haven’t looked that far into it yet and In Fine Condition stands on its own. Anyway series fans seem to hate this one and I liked it so I think readers are better off starting here.

threehourzsleep's review against another edition

4.0

probably a 3.6 or 3.7 - rounding up.