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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
This book was meh. It took me a long time to finish cause I was bored. It's a really long book (although not really) in the sense that there are a lot of pages and not much happens. The author notes how he was in love with the Sherlock Holmes stories, and undoubtedly inspired by them, and he should have followed Conan and kept to short stories. But also the main "detective" is lacking to Holmes and doesn't really even have a Watson to make up for it.
The mystery was ok but I definitely didn't feel overly interested in it and Lenox was so clueless for most of it, that I didn't really think he was doing much. He spends a lot of time eating and reading and going to social events. It's amazing he figures anything out. He is supposed to be an "armchair" detective I guess but I don't know what but something is missing. He is no Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot.
The mystery was ok but I definitely didn't feel overly interested in it and Lenox was so clueless for most of it, that I didn't really think he was doing much. He spends a lot of time eating and reading and going to social events. It's amazing he figures anything out. He is supposed to be an "armchair" detective I guess but I don't know what but something is missing. He is no Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot.
I read a lot of mysteries and usually even the bad ones are a bit hard to put down, because you really wanna know who the murderer is. But this book was such a slog. I couldn’t keep the characters straight and I didn’t care about any of them.
3.5 stars, maybe a bit higher.
I thoroughly enjoyed this cozy mystery. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was excellent. It strikes me as a cross between the Countess of Harleigh series and, well, something more serious but not quite Agatha Christie or Louise Penny.
My issues are sort of minor but they did start to detract from the story:
The characters start to be developed but they all fall a bit short. I’m hoping for more as the series moves along.
We get a lot of extra info that there’s nothing to do with. For example, Thomas and Toto’s marriage story. That should have gone somewhere for all we were told, but it ended up sort of an emotionless dead end, which was a shame because I thought the doctor was interesting. Also, food. Generally, the author kind of rambles a bit and you have to wait for him to get back to the story.
Our fearless detective is a bit bumbling. He’s no Poriot or Gamache, to be sure. He seems to draw conclusions based on whether someone is nice or not. We’re told he is quick and shows everyone up but it takes him ages to get anywhere. Also, he’s rather, well, whiny and contradictory. He complains bitterly about going out in the cold, and his boots, especially at the beginning. It seems weird for him to trot right over to Lady Jane’s every time after that without so much as a thought to the weather.
There’s a good deal more telling than showing in the story.
Lastly, the ending really dragged on… with the conclusion, the same conclusion in confession form, the chasing and missing, the other conclusion and closure, and then the getting away to the country. Felt like the author wasn’t sure how to end it.
Even so, despite these picky points, I’d like to read more of this series.
Some people pointed out British Victorian anachronisms. I do pick up on them sometimes when there is an American character in a Christie novel, for example. We don’t say “I’ve just been to hospital”… American English puts a “the” in front of hospital. Every time. When they’re abundant, I could see that being annoying. And… they were abundant here but for some reason I didn’t find it to be too much where I didn’t want to continue. I just took it as incongruous I guess.
I thoroughly enjoyed this cozy mystery. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was excellent. It strikes me as a cross between the Countess of Harleigh series and, well, something more serious but not quite Agatha Christie or Louise Penny.
My issues are sort of minor but they did start to detract from the story:
The characters start to be developed but they all fall a bit short. I’m hoping for more as the series moves along.
We get a lot of extra info that there’s nothing to do with. For example, Thomas and Toto’s marriage story. That should have gone somewhere for all we were told, but it ended up sort of an emotionless dead end, which was a shame because I thought the doctor was interesting. Also, food. Generally, the author kind of rambles a bit and you have to wait for him to get back to the story.
Our fearless detective is a bit bumbling. He’s no Poriot or Gamache, to be sure. He seems to draw conclusions based on whether someone is nice or not. We’re told he is quick and shows everyone up but it takes him ages to get anywhere. Also, he’s rather, well, whiny and contradictory. He complains bitterly about going out in the cold, and his boots, especially at the beginning. It seems weird for him to trot right over to Lady Jane’s every time after that without so much as a thought to the weather.
There’s a good deal more telling than showing in the story.
Lastly, the ending really dragged on… with the conclusion, the same conclusion in confession form, the chasing and missing, the other conclusion and closure, and then the getting away to the country. Felt like the author wasn’t sure how to end it.
Even so, despite these picky points, I’d like to read more of this series.
Some people pointed out British Victorian anachronisms. I do pick up on them sometimes when there is an American character in a Christie novel, for example. We don’t say “I’ve just been to hospital”… American English puts a “the” in front of hospital. Every time. When they’re abundant, I could see that being annoying. And… they were abundant here but for some reason I didn’t find it to be too much where I didn’t want to continue. I just took it as incongruous I guess.
A good curl-up-with-a-book book. The mystery itself wasn't terribly exciting, but the characters were interesting and there were a lot of details about the time period and the day-to-day lives of the era.
Much of this book was just ok-not very engagin, the end was fairly good, which is why I rated it 3, otherwise, it would have been a 2.
I wanted so much to enjoy this book since it’s the start of a long series… however after 3 separate attempts to get through and only making it half way, I’ve lost interest and shelved it. The story just loses me.
It's not a very suspenseful mystery and is not one of my favorites.
What a surprising find. I loved the audio book narrator and enjoyed the story and characters. I even semi-figured out the mystery. The next book is on my list!
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No