Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
This book's arrival in my reading pile was total serendipity. I don't usually read mysteries; I listen to them so I don't cheat and read the last page first. However, I was looking for something to read at one of our libraries and the title of this book jumped out at me. This volume and the third were sitting together waiting for me to find them.
Charles Lenox is the product of his time which is the Victorian era. However, he is willing to consider that some modernizations are a good thing. He is an aristocrat with time on his hands so solving mysteries is both a job and entertainment.
I think Charles Finch has picked an interesting era for his mysteries. The Scotland Yard has only been around a couple of decades so folks are still not sure what their role is in solving murders; life is changing with manufacturing so money is not just something aristocrats have and science and exploration is a big part of life for Britain.
For some reason, probably the pace this book reminds me of Laurie R. King's Sherlock Holmes series. I know I want to read more about Charles Lenox and I will continue to resist reading that last page.
Charles Lenox is the product of his time which is the Victorian era. However, he is willing to consider that some modernizations are a good thing. He is an aristocrat with time on his hands so solving mysteries is both a job and entertainment.
I think Charles Finch has picked an interesting era for his mysteries. The Scotland Yard has only been around a couple of decades so folks are still not sure what their role is in solving murders; life is changing with manufacturing so money is not just something aristocrats have and science and exploration is a big part of life for Britain.
For some reason, probably the pace this book reminds me of Laurie R. King's Sherlock Holmes series. I know I want to read more about Charles Lenox and I will continue to resist reading that last page.
Charles Lenox is aristocratic, clever, good-natured, doted upon, loyal, condescending, & rather annoying. Not very different from a lot of other high class detectives in other series that I can tell (Peter Whimsey comes to mind). Still, it was interesting enough that I listened to the audio all the way through. However, I still don't know why the murderer used the eclectic "blue" poison in the first place & then tried to make it look like a different poison was used, & I was doubly annoyed *spoiler alert* to be informed late in the plot that there was more than one complicated & drawn out crime taking place in the same house at the same time, apparently unrelated to each other.
One can understand a publisher would see a market for a Sherlock Holmes expansion. Yet, there is only one word for the series: insufferable. Pompous, imperious, entirely boys club with females as victims and props would/could be expected within a Sherlock Holmes derivative but for crying out loud never, ever, tell - always show. Yes, as an author one should endeavor to show, not tell. An editor and publisher should demand it. Abandoned without finishing.
Fun, quick mysteries. More meaty than most and quite well-written!
Rating: 3.5* of five
I submerged into 1865 London with surprising ease in this debut mystery. I was irked by lots of little picky detail boo-boos, but charmed by the characters of Charles Lenox and Lady Jane Grey, who *should* be called Lady Deere or the Dowager Countess of Deere, but whatever. Their interspecies friendship, as the Victorians would see it, is charming and sweet and very vibrantly drawn. Its charm makes me feel all squooshy inside.
And that's the real reason I've only rated this 3.8 stars. (Still getting used to the decimal star system.) I think the mystery was nicely handled, and I think the period details were very well sprinkled in the book. I like the idea of the sleuth...a humane, likable Sherlock Holmes...and I appreciate the historical "huh" moments the character, born about 1827, feels as he moves through the huge, modern, scary metropolis. I feel the same way whenever I go to New York City. It's a function of middle age, this peculiarly acute recognition of time's passing and its effects on the world around us.
But in the end, it was all more fun to read than it is to remember, which I barely do. A good entertainment, but not a fine one; a decent day's read, but nothing to keep me up late finishing.
Faint praise, I fear. Not bad. Don't break a leg getting to the store to buy it.
I submerged into 1865 London with surprising ease in this debut mystery. I was irked by lots of little picky detail boo-boos, but charmed by the characters of Charles Lenox and Lady Jane Grey, who *should* be called Lady Deere or the Dowager Countess of Deere, but whatever. Their interspecies friendship, as the Victorians would see it, is charming and sweet and very vibrantly drawn. Its charm makes me feel all squooshy inside.
And that's the real reason I've only rated this 3.8 stars. (Still getting used to the decimal star system.) I think the mystery was nicely handled, and I think the period details were very well sprinkled in the book. I like the idea of the sleuth...a humane, likable Sherlock Holmes...and I appreciate the historical "huh" moments the character, born about 1827, feels as he moves through the huge, modern, scary metropolis. I feel the same way whenever I go to New York City. It's a function of middle age, this peculiarly acute recognition of time's passing and its effects on the world around us.
But in the end, it was all more fun to read than it is to remember, which I barely do. A good entertainment, but not a fine one; a decent day's read, but nothing to keep me up late finishing.
Faint praise, I fear. Not bad. Don't break a leg getting to the store to buy it.
I read this book for the enjoyment of the story line and the historical references. I agree that there were some inconsistencies, but it was an interesting read. The unraveling was a bit too fast paced, but I didn’t see it coming anyway. The language and storytelling were beautiful, the details easy to absorb. I’d certainly read another!
mysterious
slow-paced
Dickens fat boy shows up, as do Holmes & Mycroft. Story is adequate, though the extreme closeness of servants & employers strains credulity a bit. All in all, an ok read
3 1/2 * for this cozy mystery set in Victorian England. It was a quiet murder mystery without outright action. A good book to read on a rainy day.