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cimorene1558's review against another edition
4.0
An excellent and rather haunting mystery, with lots of good people (and some rotten ones) and a fine romance.
robinwalter's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A bit overblown and self-indulgently reflective at times, but still enjoyable overall, and the resolution was solid. Even after more than 30 years, the Felse series is still returning more hits than misses on re-reading
kindleandilluminate's review against another edition
2.0
The Felse books are getting more and more melodramatic and less and less either classic English whodunnits or Felse-oriented. I started this series because I liked George Felse as a detective and I like Ellis Peters's elegant writing and I like cozy murder mysteries. But the last few have had hardly any George, hardly any real detective work, and are veering increasingly further away from the cozy murder genre. Am I supposed to care about yet another pale, delicate heroine with big blue eyes and a heavenly voice, and yet another would-be tough guy who falls for her charms? I've seen it before, and I'm getting pretty sick of it.
Also, I don't love the abuse-validating idea at the center of the plot's set-up: that X is responsible for Y's suicide because Y used the threat of it to persuade X into accepting Y's love. The fact that that is central to what turns out to be a fairly weak mystery doesn't endear the book to me any more than its feeble plot or cliched love story.
Still gets an extra star, for all my grouchiness in this review, because Peters IS a good writer in terms of putting words together into pretty sentences, and goodness knows I've read far, far worse. But I'm not sure how many more Felse books I'll be reading if they keep on down this path.
Also, I don't love the abuse-validating idea at the center of the plot's set-up: that X is responsible for Y's suicide because Y used the threat of it to persuade X into accepting Y's love. The fact that that is central to what turns out to be a fairly weak mystery doesn't endear the book to me any more than its feeble plot or cliched love story.
Still gets an extra star, for all my grouchiness in this review, because Peters IS a good writer in terms of putting words together into pretty sentences, and goodness knows I've read far, far worse. But I'm not sure how many more Felse books I'll be reading if they keep on down this path.
tamara_joy's review
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Gun violence and Murder
singinglight's review
4.0
When Maggie Tressider, a world-famous contralto, is injured in a car accident, she is haunted by the idea that once she somehow caused a man’s death. The plot is exciting and the characters are beautifully drawn. I’m still not entirely sure what I think about Francis Killian though. [Feb. 2010]
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