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___joe 's review for:
Love and Death Among the Cheetahs
by Rhys Bowen
There’s an author’s note at the beginning of the book that’s basically like, “Don’t hate this book because its 1930s British aristocracy characters are racist.” And although I don’t love that, I can set aside my feelings and allow for some historical “realism,” if it’s done well enough.
Buuuuuuut then there’s a sloppy deus ex machina where an African character is given a motive and confesses in the span of a page about 10 pages from the end. That’s lazy. And kinda racist in a way that isn’t excused by an author’s note.
And then we learn, via a historical note after the last page, that this murder is based on a real unsolved murder which was never “satisfactorily” solved. So now you’re pinning real murders on the Maasai, based on ... what? And I know it’s fiction, but now it just seems like maybe this was a way to act out some racist feelings you have.
So it wasn’t great to begin with, plus the lazy conclusion, plus the feeling this is a racist fantasy, one star.
Buuuuuuut then there’s a sloppy deus ex machina where an African character is given a motive and confesses in the span of a page about 10 pages from the end. That’s lazy. And kinda racist in a way that isn’t excused by an author’s note.
And then we learn, via a historical note after the last page, that this murder is based on a real unsolved murder which was never “satisfactorily” solved. So now you’re pinning real murders on the Maasai, based on ... what? And I know it’s fiction, but now it just seems like maybe this was a way to act out some racist feelings you have.
So it wasn’t great to begin with, plus the lazy conclusion, plus the feeling this is a racist fantasy, one star.