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3.32 AVERAGE
3.32 AVERAGE
mysterious
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:
Yes
An enjoyable mystery, but nothing remarkable, in my opinion.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
There were so many elements here that are reader catnip for me - Golden Age mystery, all-girl college, Oxford, eccentric gentry, etc. And yet, I found this a wee bit tedious and doubt I'll remember much about it. It just seemed pretty mediocre and boring and I wish it had been better.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The seed of a very good story gets immediately buried under excessive talkiness and tedious minutiae regarding timetables blooming forth only in the last chapters of the book. The writing is amateurish at best and the characters are pasteboard. I doubt I'll read anything further by Hay.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A group of female Oxford undergraduates find the bursar of the college, drowned, in her own canoe.
Enjoyable enough, though the culprit was fairly obvious.
Enjoyable enough, though the culprit was fairly obvious.
A romp around Oxford; that's generally worth the price of the ticket for Golden Age fiction and it (for the most part) works here. The mystery is thin and not particularly perplexing, and there's plenty of weird British prejudices to go around so be prepared, but the read is a fun one. Not stellar but a nice read for a rainy day.
I received an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Great start, slow in the middle, and an abrupt ending. But still great fun.
I never read anything by Mavis Doriel Hay. I also don’t really read books written in the 1930s, for some odd reason. This was a really fun, girl power detective. It isn’t bloody, it isn’t boring, it’s just a more YA type of detective. I really recommend it if you are just starting out on the detectives! Really, one of my favourite detectives I have read thus far!