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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
This book is just ... not good.
The only reason I've continued on after getting thenot completely satisfying satisfaction of completing the original Ellingham trilogy mystery (of which the mystery elements are fairly sub-par) is because I like Stevie and was interested in where her character would go and I like Stevie and David's relationship. The Box in the Woods may have been a disturbing and disappointing mystery but I liked Stevie's character journey (see my review for details i guess haha) and Stevie and David's interactions. However, this installment made it obvious stevie's character growth is going nowhere and is now completely stagnant and we will never explore any of the avenues i was interested in (some of which were brought up in the hand on the wall as if they would be explored later in the series so like .. why not). She was largely annoying and a downer in this one when not focussed on the mystery and like i said. painfully stagnant. And then David and Stevie. Wow. I understand why so many reviewers are like out to kill David lol. Before this i liked him ok? But there's barely any interaction between the two of them in this one and he's being so bland and off with stevie for no reason and none of the interactions have the sweetness or tension of the other four books. And the ending? seriously??? it feels so dramatic and ridiculous for no reason. I kind of don't ever want to move on because I don't see how they can be the same after that tbh. Whatever ..
Also Janelle, Vi and Nate might as well not even be there like they're completely irrelevant to the plot and mystery and even just for the dialogue or anything like that. They're literally just there to travel round London with Stevie but honestly you could take all of the London tourist shit out (and therefore those three along with it) and it would have no effect on the plot or the enjoyability of the book. I guess it's nice to have Nate as a now canon ace but even that feels glossed over and not as sincere as it could be. It was just so bad and weird handling of characters all round.
Now the mystery was unfortunately the only enjoyable part of this and even then it wasn't great. Firstly there were far too many characters. We follow a group of nine friends from Cambridge in 1995 and the murder of two of them at a country house and then Stevie and the gang solving the murder in present day. It was a little hard to keep track of all nine of them and like which was which and then get a sense of them and even harder to actaully care about them. Like c'mon we hardly know anything about our two victims and what they were like as people and how they thought etc because they just well.. died. Especially Noel like he was not in this at all. I got absolutely not sense of him and it feels like he didn't even get a single word of dialogue. I understand we couldn't get a pov flashback chapter from either him or Rosie because it would reveal who the murderer was and their motive etc but like. I did not care that they were dead.
Also in general the mystery is super obvious. Like nice try with that red herring but I picked it up before you pointed it out to me and it was then obvious Rosie and Noel were killed by one of the others because they knew something they shouldn't I guess it's fine as a mystery but it's pretty classic and basic and therefore kind of obvious and the facts and the elements that are left out of the 1995 day-of-the-murder parts of the narrative to then be dramtically revealed later and the red herrings and misdirections and then all the clues in dialogue that helps Stevie to suddenly realise what she's been missing (!!!), where all laid out pretty amateurly in my opinion. The only good bit that was a little cool i guess was yeah i did like that bit. Still I guess it was fun to follow the mystery unfold (when we were focussed on it and not any of the other character stuff that bored me this time). And the atmosphere of the house was also fairly good. But it was super unsatisfying ultimately like yeah we find out who and why and how but it's not really resolved at the end
I do find it interesting though that the Ellingham trilogy is based around murders/crimes that were human error, natural deaths and small things that got out of hand which is something I really liked about the conclusion of that mystery. And then both the standalones are super violent disturbing murders that were done to get rid of people who knew about their previous murders .. like what ? it's such a vibe change.also like why do they both have the exact same motive for the murders .. how unorginial
anyway, overall it's really not great. i'm losing interest in the characters (the only reason I was continuing these mediocre mysteries in the first place) so i don't know if I'll read the next onebut I probably will because i like to suffer apparently
and now to my list of complaints about the english/london inaccuracies. To be fair most things were fine. But there were some glaring errors and the London setting added nothing to the story so like why not set it somewhere you actually know or like get someone to read it and check for those errors. or not i guess whatever. anyway:
-at one point Stevie is on the tube and it says the adverts are rushing by as they're moving in the tube ... which like when you're moving you're going through a dark tunnel.. there are no adverts there like what. obviously there's ads at each of the stations but you're not moving then so.
-sebastian says his husband is an antique dealer basically and he likes going to "boot sales" which americans call yard sales. I think Johnson means car boot sales which I've honestly never heard anyone call just a boot sale. I'll let this one slide because maybe people do maybe it's a southern thing but like really if you're going to use phrases and colloquisms unfamiliar to you, you should check they're correct.
-the most offensive though. one of the nine tells the others to go to the shop and pick up like some milk and bread and "sauce rolls" ... yeah sorry genuinely wtf are sauce rolls?? I even put it into google because i doubted myself, oh maybe it's a ridiculous southern word for a cob or whatever that I'd never heard of, but noper all it came up with was sausage rolls. is that what she meant to put and it's a terrible spelling error (wouldn't be the first error like that in her books) or like what .. i genuinely don't understand.
anyway all of these are no big deal or anything obviously and I'm genuinely not angry lol but it is annoying when someone writes about a place you know or live and gets things wrong that would be so easy to check online or with someone who does live in this place. there's probably other things that i missed but this is what stood out to me and irritated me the most so. And honestly it wouldn't be as bad if the rest of the book was good but it's not so I'm being petty. sue me.
The only reason I've continued on after getting the
Also Janelle, Vi and Nate might as well not even be there like they're completely irrelevant to the plot and mystery and even just for the dialogue or anything like that. They're literally just there to travel round London with Stevie but honestly you could take all of the London tourist shit out (and therefore those three along with it) and it would have no effect on the plot or the enjoyability of the book. I guess it's nice to have Nate as a now canon ace but even that feels glossed over and not as sincere as it could be.
Spoiler
and then also stevie just ups and leaves them all at the airport?? and we don't hear from those three again for the rest of the book??Now the mystery was unfortunately the only enjoyable part of this and even then it wasn't great. Firstly there were far too many characters. We follow a group of nine friends from Cambridge in 1995 and the murder of two of them at a country house and then Stevie and the gang solving the murder in present day. It was a little hard to keep track of all nine of them and like which was which and then get a sense of them and even harder to actaully care about them. Like c'mon we hardly know anything about our two victims and what they were like as people and how they thought etc because they just well.. died. Especially Noel like he was not in this at all. I got absolutely not sense of him and it feels like he didn't even get a single word of dialogue. I understand we couldn't get a pov flashback chapter from either him or Rosie because it would reveal who the murderer was and their motive etc but like. I did not care that they were dead.
Also in general the mystery is super obvious. Like nice try with that
Spoiler
Canadian vs AmericanSpoiler
ie that the american girl's death was linked to one of the nine and which one that wasSpoiler
like the woodshed, where the murders happened, being full of weed that the nine removed after they discovered the bodiesSpoiler
the key swapping between peter and sebastianSpoiler
like the murderer literally just walks off at the end ???? ok???I do find it interesting though that the Ellingham trilogy is based around murders/crimes that were human error, natural deaths and small things that got out of hand which is something I really liked about the conclusion of that mystery. And then both the standalones are super violent disturbing murders that were done to get rid of people who knew about their previous murders .. like what ? it's such a vibe change.
anyway, overall it's really not great. i'm losing interest in the characters (the only reason I was continuing these mediocre mysteries in the first place) so i don't know if I'll read the next one
and now to my list of complaints about the english/london inaccuracies. To be fair most things were fine. But there were some glaring errors and the London setting added nothing to the story so like why not set it somewhere you actually know or like get someone to read it and check for those errors. or not i guess whatever. anyway:
-at one point Stevie is on the tube and it says the adverts are rushing by as they're moving in the tube ... which like when you're moving you're going through a dark tunnel.. there are no adverts there like what. obviously there's ads at each of the stations but you're not moving then so.
-sebastian says his husband is an antique dealer basically and he likes going to "boot sales" which americans call yard sales. I think Johnson means car boot sales which I've honestly never heard anyone call just a boot sale. I'll let this one slide because maybe people do maybe it's a southern thing but like really if you're going to use phrases and colloquisms unfamiliar to you, you should check they're correct.
-the most offensive though. one of the nine tells the others to go to the shop and pick up like some milk and bread and "sauce rolls" ... yeah sorry genuinely wtf are sauce rolls?? I even put it into google because i doubted myself, oh maybe it's a ridiculous southern word for a cob or whatever that I'd never heard of, but noper all it came up with was sausage rolls. is that what she meant to put and it's a terrible spelling error (wouldn't be the first error like that in her books) or like what .. i genuinely don't understand.
anyway all of these are no big deal or anything obviously and I'm genuinely not angry lol but it is annoying when someone writes about a place you know or live and gets things wrong that would be so easy to check online or with someone who does live in this place. there's probably other things that i missed but this is what stood out to me and irritated me the most so. And honestly it wouldn't be as bad if the rest of the book was good but it's not so I'm being petty. sue me.
Was this the worst in the series so far? Yes. Will I still keep reading Stevie Bell books? Yes.
This mystery makes no sense. I don't have any connection to the relationship in this book so the ongoing relationship plotline that overtakes the mystery made this book endless. I honestly skipped over the last few chapters because I did not care about the relationship plotline ending.
The only thing I liked about this was that I was wrong on who the actual murderer was And I liked that history played a part in the "clues" but that's it.
The only thing I liked about this was that I was wrong on who the actual murderer was
Spoiler
because for no reason whatsoever I became attached to Sebastian and would have rioted if it the gay character had done it.
Literally what in the world. I feel like I was wronged in so many ways. Physically ill
I really liked the other books in the series, mostly because the relationships between the characters is so strong. They’re a cute friend group! And because the mysteries are fun! But this book was filled with too many bad decisions and teenage angst. The ending was so unsatisfying and left Stevie with no glory.
This book was such a good combo of Gosford Park and The Secret History! The mystery was very much my vibe and I loved the concept of this close knit group of 90’s college students in a country house mystery. I also loved Stevie’s subplot in London. I just love London so much and reading this book made me miss it so deeply. This is the fourth Maureen Johnson book I’ve read set in London and I loved all the little nods to previous books. She writes about London so well. As I was reflecting on Maureen Johnson’s writing, I realized I’ve never read a book by her where I’ve actually shipped the main couple. There is always something awkward and off about her romances, including David in this one. Which is why I can’t give it 5 stars.
