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renc7c69's review
3.0
Liked this one better than the second but not as much as the first.
I get that it becomes unlikely to have the same person always on the scene of a crime and it's more plausible to have people come to him for help, but I thought that made Julian somehow detached from the crime. I think I would have been more into it if he'd been at Alexander's dinner party right before he'd died, seen everyone with his own eyes, and so on. Instead we start with a request for him to investigate, the first accounts of the crime are in the form of witness reports... it's all very clinical.
Also, the mystery was too transparent for me. It could be because of the similarities with one of the Sebastian St. Cyr books, but I guessed most of the plot twists in advance and there was no suspense at all, just a little frustration because Julian seemed slower than usual on the uptake. It wasn't a bad book, it just... didn't wow me.
I get that it becomes unlikely to have the same person always on the scene of a crime and it's more plausible to have people come to him for help, but I thought that made Julian somehow detached from the crime. I think I would have been more into it if he'd been at Alexander's dinner party right before he'd died, seen everyone with his own eyes, and so on. Instead we start with a request for him to investigate, the first accounts of the crime are in the form of witness reports... it's all very clinical.
Also, the mystery was too transparent for me. It could be because of the similarities with one of the Sebastian St. Cyr books, but I guessed most of the plot twists in advance and there was no suspense at all, just a little frustration because Julian seemed slower than usual on the uptake. It wasn't a bad book, it just... didn't wow me.
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