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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Loved! The heiress to Marple. Only marked down bc the use of dialect was too clunky.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
It’s official. My new favorite genre is with women who are 55+ solving murders. Book kept me engaged and reading, the plot flowed well, and the protagonist is POC which is always a plus for me.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Cosy underbelly of a Jamaican community
—
Imagine if Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher came from Jamaica, and the fictional Birmingham suburb of Bigglesweigh were really a village of secrets, lies and mysteries, and you’ve got this unique take on the cosy, with the titular Miss Hortense, a formidable retiree who everyone underestimates to their downfall. When the members of the community bank (that she was kicked out of) begin to die in suspicious circumstances, it’s up to Miss Hortense and her network of old pals, enemies and new suspects to investigate the fortune hunters, underworld characters and two faced harridans before things escalate.
Miss Hortense is a multi-dimensional character who can handle herself in almost any situation, even managing to save herself from imminent death. She uses her brains to outsmart everyone, even family members, and the surprises come thick and fast until the unusual move to have a Christie-style gathering in the drawing room for a denouement. I loved how Mis Hortense’s Jamaican world neatly slots into this colourful, fictional Birmingham suburb, how the reality of us and them, the law versus the people, the law-abiding and the morally corrupt, are all up for debate when you have Miss Hortense as judge, jury and (figurative) executioner. I cannot wait to read the next one!
—
Imagine if Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher came from Jamaica, and the fictional Birmingham suburb of Bigglesweigh were really a village of secrets, lies and mysteries, and you’ve got this unique take on the cosy, with the titular Miss Hortense, a formidable retiree who everyone underestimates to their downfall. When the members of the community bank (that she was kicked out of) begin to die in suspicious circumstances, it’s up to Miss Hortense and her network of old pals, enemies and new suspects to investigate the fortune hunters, underworld characters and two faced harridans before things escalate.
Miss Hortense is a multi-dimensional character who can handle herself in almost any situation, even managing to save herself from imminent death. She uses her brains to outsmart everyone, even family members, and the surprises come thick and fast until the unusual move to have a Christie-style gathering in the drawing room for a denouement. I loved how Mis Hortense’s Jamaican world neatly slots into this colourful, fictional Birmingham suburb, how the reality of us and them, the law versus the people, the law-abiding and the morally corrupt, are all up for debate when you have Miss Hortense as judge, jury and (figurative) executioner. I cannot wait to read the next one!
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
I loved Miss Hortense and look forward to her further adventures in crime solving. But I hope the second book is a clearer read—-the author introduced a lot of characters in a complicated plot that was sometimes hard to follow.
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
DNF'ing. Only got to 6%, yet it felt like more than that (without anything really intriguing happening); it unfortunately hadn't hooked me at all.
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
4.5 stars, this started out a bit confusing, but the characters and plot grew on me and I ended up really liking it. There are strong feelings around family and religion and hidden secrets turned up, so it's not cozy like the cover might lead you to believe. I couldn't quite figure out why our narrator was comfortable dropping an F bomb but had to say "a very bad word starting with B" a few times, that was funny.
This is a fun cozy, set in the iCaribbean immigrant community of England, revolving around a traditional financial arrangement called a Pardner, necessitated by the unwillingness of the British old-guard business community to provide financial support to blacks. The Pardner is a serial borrowing ring, with one person in charge of the record-keeping. In the early 1960s, a young woman who has immigrated to be near her sister and to study to become a nurse is elected the executive of the Oardner, and during the time she runs it, she has an informal detective avocation based on the internal knowledge of the community. She is not above using a fake I.d. or picking a lock to help fill in gaps of knowledge about malfeasance within the community, but after a tragic event tied to her detecting causes the death of a dear friend, she backs out of the Pardner and her information seeking. That is, until old age begins to take a toll on the members of the Pardner, and young, ruthless people of the second generation get involved, and Hortense feels it is necessary to uncover the old secrets. The fun of the book is the immigrant community, and for me, the variations on island patois.