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ms_someday's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
inwit's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
maplessence's review against another edition
4.0
For anyone who (like me) is carpentry-challenged here is a picture of a rasp.
Should have looked that up before reading the book as I'm having to adjust my vision of the murder.
Colonel Gethyn is called in to help solve the murder of the popular and talented British Cabinet Minister. In the hands of MacDonald, Gethyn suffers a lot from Women Want Him, Men Want to be Him Syndrome, which can grate at time (or maybe I should say rasp!)
The story moves along reasonably well at first with good dialogue and I enjoyed the Where the book falls down for me (& this is unfortunately common in Golden Age mysteries) is all the exposition at the end about whodunnit how Superman Gethyn solved it. I did notice at 85% on my kindle that this was getting rather long. Completely dragged the story down & it took me two days to read this part.
Still a good tale that I am happy to have read.
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshessonovel.wordpress.com
Should have looked that up before reading the book as I'm having to adjust my vision of the murder.
Colonel Gethyn is called in to help solve the murder of the popular and talented British Cabinet Minister. In the hands of MacDonald, Gethyn suffers a lot from Women Want Him, Men Want to be Him Syndrome, which can grate at time (or maybe I should say rasp!)
The story moves along reasonably well at first with good dialogue and I enjoyed the
Spoiler
romances.Still a good tale that I am happy to have read.
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshessonovel.wordpress.com
iphigenie72's review against another edition
2.0
A English cabinet minister is killed in his study. Anthony Gethryn, a wealthy man, a former war spy and associated with a newspaper, investigates.
I thought the start of the mystery was interesting though I had a pretty good idea who was the culprit early on, but then Anthony starts having conversations with different witnesses that are not in the book. I always think that an author should not do the behind the scenes thing and yet tell the reader about it, I love the Inspector Alleyn's books by [a:Ngaio Marsh|68144|Ngaio Marsh|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1237946649p2/68144.jpg] but she tends to have her inspector explains things to his sergeant in his ear and that's annoys me so here Mr. McDonald does it too. The way the crime was committed is very ingenious (I didn't guess that), but the exposition is put in a very long chapter in the form of a report Anthony makes to the police... its just long and makes an interesting and clever murder become an academic paper! And, yes another thing that didn't work for me, there's a romance for Anthony of love at first sight.
In the end, I was pretty disappointed in this story, I think there's a good base, it's just poorly executed.
I thought the start of the mystery was interesting though I had a pretty good idea who was the culprit early on, but then Anthony starts having conversations with different witnesses that are not in the book. I always think that an author should not do the behind the scenes thing and yet tell the reader about it, I love the Inspector Alleyn's books by [a:Ngaio Marsh|68144|Ngaio Marsh|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1237946649p2/68144.jpg] but she tends to have her inspector explains things to his sergeant in his ear and that's annoys me so here Mr. McDonald does it too. The way the crime was committed is very ingenious (I didn't guess that), but the exposition is put in a very long chapter in the form of a report Anthony makes to the police... its just long and makes an interesting and clever murder become an academic paper! And, yes another thing that didn't work for me, there's a romance for Anthony of love at first sight.
In the end, I was pretty disappointed in this story, I think there's a good base, it's just poorly executed.
kjcharles's review
Gleefully implausible 1920s detective story with the full banana ridiculously elaborate tropical-fish crime. Starts off brilliantly with a ruthless newspaper editor, his superefficient Girl Friday, and a sensitve arty yet war hero upper class tec. Sadly the hero devolves into a silly ass type (he goes around talking whimsically and riffing on nursery rhymes to people who are *trying to solve the goddamn murder*, mate, bit busy to listen to you ramble on) and suffers from Lord Peter Wimsey disease, ie every second thing out of his mouth is a quotation. Still, good fun.
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