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krisrid's review against another edition
2.0
This was okay. Hence the two stars. Not great, not bad, but okay.
I liked the spunk of the main character Katherine, and her determination to have a life lived by her own rules and decisions. She was smart and competent and capable. But she didn't have anything unique enough for me to really connect to her and deeply care about what happened to her.
The supporting characters all felt like they came straight out of central casting. There was nobody especially unique or interesting or engaging. They all felt interchangeable.
Honestly, the character in this book I liked the best was the pug dog, Emma. She was the only character whose antics and behaviour made me smile or laugh. When the dog is the most interesting part of the book, well, it isn't likely to be a story that encourages you to continue with the series, and I doubt I will read others in this series. Again, not bad, just nothing particularly unique or interesting.
I liked the spunk of the main character Katherine, and her determination to have a life lived by her own rules and decisions. She was smart and competent and capable. But she didn't have anything unique enough for me to really connect to her and deeply care about what happened to her.
The supporting characters all felt like they came straight out of central casting. There was nobody especially unique or interesting or engaging. They all felt interchangeable.
Honestly, the character in this book I liked the best was the pug dog, Emma. She was the only character whose antics and behaviour made me smile or laugh. When the dog is the most interesting part of the book, well, it isn't likely to be a story that encourages you to continue with the series, and I doubt I will read others in this series. Again, not bad, just nothing particularly unique or interesting.
amarien's review against another edition
2.0
So this book ranged from okay to terrible. As far as characters go it had an interesting set with variance and Katherine for all her anachronism was interesting, at first. The book is anachronistic and upfront about it. So I was ready for that and accepted my lot and would be happy if the mystery was good.
The thing is though, Katherine is a terrible investigator. Like she is absolutely terrible. She makes early assumptions with little evidence, gets caught constantly snooping. The worst part is though she ignores potential avenues of investigation as well as suspects for little to no reason. If someone talks about a past event of one of the victims you'd ask what happened, who was there and how everyone behaved. She asks only what is relevant to her assumptions. She is supposedly not new at this and learned from her dad. I'd say either her dad is also terrible or she learned nothing.
Also the killer is fairly obvious from mid-point and she ignores the clues, that informed be fairly easily who the killer was, for no reason. She has the same clues after all and she is supposed to be the investigator. Yet she misses everything relevant. This is frustrating at best.
While I don't need my detective character to be perfect or right all the time I'd like them to be good at their work and thus worth reading about. Katherine is not worth reading about.
The thing is though, Katherine is a terrible investigator. Like she is absolutely terrible.
Also the killer is fairly obvious from mid-point and she ignores the clues, that informed be fairly easily who the killer was, for no reason. She has the same clues after all and she is supposed to be the investigator. Yet she misses everything relevant. This is frustrating at best.
While I don't need my detective character to be perfect or right all the time I'd like them to be good at their work and thus worth reading about. Katherine is not worth reading about.
bookit's review against another edition
2.0
Lady Katherine takes on the job of a matchmaker in order to get invited to a house party where (conveniently) the main suspects behind the Pink Ribbon murders will be in attendance. I absolutely hated how she behaved as a matchmaker/chaperone, especially given that her client made it clear to her what the stakes were for making a good match for their daughter. Throughout the story, she treated this poor girl, who was already totally lacking in self-esteem, as an inconvenience or a burden and seriously neglected even the most basic aspects of what she was hired to do. Instead, she focused on trying to solve the murders out of purely selfish motivations - so her father would give her her dowry and she could live independently. It didn't even seem like she cared much about the murder victims. And don't get me started on her "investigative" techniques, like surreptitiously holding a string next to various men's boots - while they were wearing them - to see if their shoe size matched a footprint. Most of her investigation seemed to be skulking about on the servant stairs and slipping in and out of men's rooms to rummage around while they were out.
In short, I didn't really like Lady Katherine very much, I hated how she used a vulnerable young woman to further her own selfish motives, and her investigative techniques were mostly ridiculous.
In short, I didn't really like Lady Katherine very much, I hated how she used a vulnerable young woman to further her own selfish motives, and her investigative techniques were mostly ridiculous.
therealestreya's review against another edition
5.0
Great twisty mystery with an interesting main character.