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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
I am only 60 pages in and I am hooked. A great treat after my last book, which was a somewhat leaden disappointment.
It's surprising to me that I came to this book via a recommendation in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. It didn't really have a F or SF component in my opinion. HOWEVER, I did enjoy it. More for the reader who enjoyed The Woman in White.
This is a somewhat complex story, with lots of little twists and turns leading down nonessential paths. Quietly interesting.
http://girllostinabook.blogspot.com/2012/09/review-bedlam-detective.html
It reminded of Michael Criton's Congo at the very beginning, but it came into its own and really sucked me in.
This book has an interesting angle, a detective who works for Bedlam, and stumbles across a murder case while investigating a person's sanity, and it was engaging, but it had some issues for me. I found the timely references forced, the women's voting league and a son with autism seemed dropped into the plot line more to prove the author had done his historical homework than for any real plot significance. As the book went on, these blended into the story much better and I would read the next one if this is a series, but I feel that a reader shouldn't be as aware of those idiosyncracies as I was initially.
I like historical fiction; I'm not a fan of mysteries per se, unless there's something different going on with the story. This book manages both - and it also sits in about the same time period (and culture) of Downton Abbey, which we have recently begun watching, which certainly helped envision some of the setting. Anyway, you're going to want to like at least one of those genres to go after this one.
Slow burning and very atmospheric. The first third is a little laggy, as the pieces begin to drift together, but the main character is likable and credible. Satisfying ending.
Monsters dwell in the shadows and in the hard light of day. They are among us. They sit next to us, chat with us, and dine with us. We only acknowledge their existence when their actions cause harm. The Bedlam Detective breaks down the monstrous form and makes you see that everyone is capable of monstrosity under the right circumstances.
Solid 3. Period detective piece that mixes Tarzan ethics with modern complexities of lunacy marriage and abuse. All in all a good read that took me a while merely because I was busy!