Reviews

Losing Ground by Catherine Aird

melissa_who_reads's review against another edition

3.0

Enjoyed it. Have been reading the series in order: and so often when a "builder" shows up (developer in the US) someone associated with the builder turns out to be the murderer, so I began suspecting all the builders in the story immediately. But in this story, there was no murder - an art theft starts the ball rolling, followed by a spot of arson, and at the end an attempted murder: foiled in the nick of time by Inspector CD Sloan. Not a bad plot: it took a while for me to guess.

nocto's review against another edition

3.0

I read a couple of Catherine Aird's books a few years back and seemed to remember liking them so I picked this up off the library shelf. I love having my archives to look back through though - they are so much better than my memory! I had liked the first one I read: "Short and sweet, but really pretty well executed." but the second one seemed a bit too similar.

This one contained the same compact storytelling but with a gap of several years since the last book I enjoyed it for much the same reasons. Economical with words but full of plot. This one is about a fire in a dilapidated stately home at the centre of a new housing development. It might be the only crime novel I've read in years without a murder. I had a good idea where the story was going and was mostly right. The quick ending meant that I felt that at least one thread of the story was left swinging in the air.

Mostly good.

cmbohn's review against another edition

4.0

I was excited to see this latest in a series I really enjoy, featuring Detective Inspector CD Sloan and the almost-clueless Constable Crosby. This time, the action centers around first the theft of a painting and then around the arson involving the building in the painting. The building depicted is the center of a land development tangle involving preservationists, real estate developers, city planners, and a rock star.

I usually rate these at 5 stars, but this one seemed to me to be a little too much about, well, a little too little. The mystery didn't seem to be worth all the action. Things did heat up towards the very end, but until then it was pretty light. Still, I was happy to see a new book by Catherine Aird. I hope there's more to come!