Reviews

The Cornish Coast Murder by John Bude

salowlbooks's review

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adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

4.5

krobart's review against another edition

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2.0

See my review here:

http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2017/04/28/day-1072-the-cornish-coast-murder/

annareadsmysteries's review against another edition

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3.0

3.5
Better than my previously read John Bude
Is it as good as a Christie or a Sayers?
Nope.
But it's good mind-numbing fun - if you have time.

tinido's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Man könnte dem Autor vorwerfen, dass er die Leserin als Co-Detektivin etwas an der Nase herumführt, aber ich finde, der Plot Twist ist extrem gut durch den Plot (und die Erzählweise selbst) gerechtfertigt. Und im Text gibt es mehrmal klare Hinweise darauf, wie man grundsätzlich nicht an Indizien herantreten bzw. sie bewerten sollte. Ziemlich gute, flüssige Übersetzung und ein sehr guter Sprecher. 

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tobyyy's review against another edition

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4.0

Unread shelf project 2022: book 43.

I’m on a journey of exploring golden age of mystery authors other than Agatha Christie. This was honestly a very fun and intriguing tale and after having finished it, I really want to read more by John Bude. He wrote very well and the characters were quite likable; the plot wasn’t too bad either. Not quite Dame Christie level of awesome but close!

mimika9's review against another edition

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4.0

A charming period piece.

djnatedagreat's review against another edition

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3.0

Purchased at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT.

maggiekms's review

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challenging mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

hrm's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

crazygoangirl's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

3.0

Reading my first John Bude, another Golden Age mystery writer that I was unaware of. Happy to find this on Storytel although I didn’t like the narrator Ben Allen.

This has all the hallmarks of a cosy English mystery. There’s a murder in the first chapter on a dark and stormy night in Boscawen, a tiny Cornish village. There are quite a few quirky characters behaving suspiciously and then there are the vicar and doctor duo, Reverend Dodd and Dr. Pendrill, who are cosy crime aficionados themselves and meet every Monday evening at the Vicarage, for dinner and crime chat! 

The mystery begins promisingly enough. A magistrate, Julius Tregarthan, locally unpopular, is found shot through the head in his house. His young niece Ruth and his servants, the Cowpers are allegedly clueless as to the reasons. An author, Ronald Hardy who is intimate with Ruth Tregarthan has disappeared and Constable Grouch and Inspector Bigswell are on the case, although they are stymied by dead-end clues and the vicar’s ‘intuitive’ deduction theory! Eventually, all is peachy & satisfactorily sorted. 

I enjoyed this book although I felt it was quite slow and definitely too long. Ronald Harry’s disappearance for example was ridiculous and quite silly when explained! Also rather silly was the vicar’s insistence on the innocence of certain suspects because of his ‘intuition’. Hardly the strong point of an amateur sleuth! I was rooting for Inspector Bigswell (although I thought he was too patient and accommodating of the vicar’s methods), and thought it quite unfair that the solution was ultimately dependent on local knowledge that the vicar didn’t share with him 🤷🏼‍♀️ In fact the vicar didn’t share much with the Inspector while being privy to most of the police investigation!

I liked Bude’s writing which is why this wasn’t as boring as it could have been, but I didn’t care about the Ruth-Ronald romance at all and toward the end I just wanted to be done! Bude has two more mysteries published by the British Library and I will eventually read those but not anytime soon.