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dillybar20's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
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? No
4.0
(Copy and pasted from my review on Goodreads)
This is the best-paced book I've ever read. I was halfway through before I knew it but it didn't feel like it was either too fast or too slow. I was hesitant about reading the rest of the series but I definitely will after fully reading this.
This book is also partially accurate to real life. A character mentions, the Queen, "but before the tragedy". The Queen at the time was Queen Victoria and the tragedy is her husband Arthur's death in 1861. The Queen became very secluded after that until her death in 1901. Several times in the books Murdoch mentions that the police stations have to house the homeless for the nights. I was curious if this was true or not and it turns out probably not. Homelessness was criminalized in Canada and the United States until 1972. The 150 page study I skimmed on homelessness from 1900-2000 didn't mention any such agreement between the police and the homeless. In fact the article mentioned severe abuse of power because of vagrant laws. Still the book does have some accuracy going for it.
Now for the negative things, first of all the book needed some trigger warnings. I expected murder of course but there were other things that could have been mentioned. (list of tws at the bottom). The cover of this book is the characters from the TV show which wouldn't be awful except that only Crabtree, Murdoch, and Brackenreid appear in the book and with the exception of Murdoch obviously they don't appear often. Why have a cover of mostly characters that don't or barely appear? Secondly, Murdoch who is otherwise an amazing detective takes the time to retrace someone's footsteps when he knows that there is a life in danger and that he may already be too late. Murdoch admits to a man that it's only natural to beat animals when things don't go your way but then only 2 or so pages later Murdoch sees a horse with bindings too tight and he says he, "hated to see animals treated like that." Which is it Murdoch? Lastly, there is no glossary what-so-ever. The book takes place in 1895 and the language differs greatly from what we use but the author doesn't care to tell you what any of these words mean. It leaves alot of unnecessary confusion. You had to research these words to write the book, yes? Why not include a simple glossary?
Trigger Warning List:Cutting/Self-Harm, Abuse of Mentally Disabled People, Murder, Rape, Racism (Characters call people "Half-Breed", "red Indian" and Murdoch implies that Native Americans aren't real men.), Animal Abuse (mentioned only), Death of Child) The only trigger I won't put a spoiler on is prostitution because I couldn't find a way to add it to the content warnings below. All others are in those warnings.
This is the best-paced book I've ever read. I was halfway through before I knew it but it didn't feel like it was either too fast or too slow. I was hesitant about reading the rest of the series but I definitely will after fully reading this.
This book is also partially accurate to real life. A character mentions, the Queen, "but before the tragedy". The Queen at the time was Queen Victoria and the tragedy is her husband Arthur's death in 1861. The Queen became very secluded after that until her death in 1901. Several times in the books Murdoch mentions that the police stations have to house the homeless for the nights. I was curious if this was true or not and it turns out probably not. Homelessness was criminalized in Canada and the United States until 1972. The 150 page study I skimmed on homelessness from 1900-2000 didn't mention any such agreement between the police and the homeless. In fact the article mentioned severe abuse of power because of vagrant laws. Still the book does have some accuracy going for it.
Now for the negative things, first of all the book needed some trigger warnings. I expected murder of course but there were other things that could have been mentioned. (list of tws at the bottom). The cover of this book is the characters from the TV show which wouldn't be awful except that only Crabtree, Murdoch, and Brackenreid appear in the book and with the exception of Murdoch obviously they don't appear often. Why have a cover of mostly characters that don't or barely appear? Secondly, Murdoch who is otherwise an amazing detective takes the time to retrace someone's footsteps when he knows that there is a life in danger and that he may already be too late. Murdoch admits to a man that it's only natural to beat animals when things don't go your way but then only 2 or so pages later Murdoch sees a horse with bindings too tight and he says he, "hated to see animals treated like that." Which is it Murdoch? Lastly, there is no glossary what-so-ever. The book takes place in 1895 and the language differs greatly from what we use but the author doesn't care to tell you what any of these words mean. It leaves alot of unnecessary confusion. You had to research these words to write the book, yes? Why not include a simple glossary?
Trigger Warning List:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm and Murder
Moderate: Rape, Racism, and Racial slurs
Minor: Child death and Emotional abuse
vivienreads's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
I've spent years watching the show and love it so I was really interested in reading the novel. The TV Murdoch vs the novel version seemed quite different imo (e.g. in the book Murdoch has a moustache, smokes, and drinks to name few of the many differences). Even so, when looking at this novel independent of the show it is still overall enjoyable. It is a pretty fun and not too intense read but like others have pointed out it does lose some footing and requires a bit of attention to detail to pick up on the subtleties of some of the explanations. While the overall motive is not really stated I think it is a satisfying enough ending.
This book is not a particularly well crafted mystery but the characters and writing style are interesting. I'm excited to continue to read the series!
This book is not a particularly well crafted mystery but the characters and writing style are interesting. I'm excited to continue to read the series!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape
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