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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Meh. I don't know if I'm desperate enough to read any more of these follow-ups. Sure, I'd love more stories with Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Whimsey, but the writing is sub-par when you compare it to Dorothy Sayers (duh).
Down to 3 stars for this one, I hope this downward trend doesn't continue.
Eminently readable and perfectly fun, but still no better than perfectly competent fanfic. I've seen reviews that deplore the lack of clever literary references - I don't mind that as I never got them anyway, but it's still obvious to even a simpleton like me that the witty repartee between Harriet and Peter is not up to snuff. And Harriet is just not written as interestingly as she was by Sayers; she comes off as rather dull and even simple at times (not following up obvious leads, dismissing the dentist just because she doesn't like her, taking SO LONG to realise what had "happened in the wood shed" as it were)
But actually, what really lowered my opinion of this book was it's treatment of it's peripheral female characters, in particular the murder victim. Now I can forgive a lot of this stuff in books from the actual period this book is set in, but Paton Walsh is a modern writer and woman for goodness sake, and it would be nice if that was reflected a bit in the text. I was infuriated by how little anyone cared about "Wicked" Wendy, even Harriet who you would think would have some sympathy, but you could tell that even Paton Walsh didn't care about her either, just using her to set up a second, far more interesting (to her) murder. Then we barely hear about Wendy again, and the solving of her murder barely gets a paragraph in the end. And for a book that purports to be about the home front and the murder of a land girl, we actually get to know very little about those women who did so much during the war - there's one conversation with the other land girls and that's it - but oh so much about the bravery of our boys and the hard luck of a pilot and how tough they all have it on their air fields. And yes, it's all true, of course it's all true and we know it, but is it really too much to hope that a book written by a woman might focus on, you know, the experience of women?! Certainly lots of characters take pains to point out that women are working hard and proving their worth and aren't likely to want to go back to their old roles after the war, but that's all just hand waving.
The above might sound petty, as I ultimately did enjoy the book, but add in the criticisms I had of "Thrones, Dominations" as well (all that awful 'sexual tease' stuff, and how it was the second murder that was the problem and not the first) and my inner feminist is getting rather pissed off at Paton Walsh, basically.
Good things - the phony war setting is fun and interesting, and I did enjoy the various spy plot lines, even if I wished that Wendy's story had had more prominence. And the murders were interesting, although there were some hefty anvils that it was hard to believe Harriet would miss.
(Although I did catch one almighty clanger - we're supposed to believe that Harriet heard the pig trap go, but not the almighty fight that was also taking place in there? Ridiculous - though actually Harriet was so drippy in this book that maybe I shouldn't be surprised....)
Well I've successfully managed to make it sound like I hated this, even though I didn't, so I'd best just end there. Onwards to the next one, in the hope that it's the best so far!
Eminently readable and perfectly fun, but still no better than perfectly competent fanfic. I've seen reviews that deplore the lack of clever literary references - I don't mind that as I never got them anyway, but it's still obvious to even a simpleton like me that the witty repartee between Harriet and Peter is not up to snuff. And Harriet is just not written as interestingly as she was by Sayers; she comes off as rather dull and even simple at times (not following up obvious leads, dismissing the dentist just because she doesn't like her, taking SO LONG to realise what had "happened in the wood shed" as it were)
But actually, what really lowered my opinion of this book was it's treatment of it's peripheral female characters, in particular the murder victim. Now I can forgive a lot of this stuff in books from the actual period this book is set in, but Paton Walsh is a modern writer and woman for goodness sake, and it would be nice if that was reflected a bit in the text. I was infuriated by how little anyone cared about "Wicked" Wendy, even Harriet who you would think would have some sympathy, but you could tell that even Paton Walsh didn't care about her either, just using her to set up a second, far more interesting (to her) murder. Then we barely hear about Wendy again, and the solving of her murder barely gets a paragraph in the end. And for a book that purports to be about the home front and the murder of a land girl, we actually get to know very little about those women who did so much during the war - there's one conversation with the other land girls and that's it - but oh so much about the bravery of our boys and the hard luck of a pilot and how tough they all have it on their air fields. And yes, it's all true, of course it's all true and we know it, but is it really too much to hope that a book written by a woman might focus on, you know, the experience of women?! Certainly lots of characters take pains to point out that women are working hard and proving their worth and aren't likely to want to go back to their old roles after the war, but that's all just hand waving.
The above might sound petty, as I ultimately did enjoy the book, but add in the criticisms I had of "Thrones, Dominations" as well (all that awful 'sexual tease' stuff, and how it was the second murder that was the problem and not the first) and my inner feminist is getting rather pissed off at Paton Walsh, basically.
Good things - the phony war setting is fun and interesting, and I did enjoy the various spy plot lines, even if I wished that Wendy's story had had more prominence. And the murders were interesting, although there were some hefty anvils that it was hard to believe Harriet would miss.
(Although I did catch one almighty clanger - we're supposed to believe that Harriet heard the pig trap go, but not the almighty fight that was also taking place in there? Ridiculous - though actually Harriet was so drippy in this book that maybe I shouldn't be surprised....)
Well I've successfully managed to make it sound like I hated this, even though I didn't, so I'd best just end there. Onwards to the next one, in the hope that it's the best so far!
Not exactly Dorothy Sayers...but close enough to truly enjoy it.