Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by ioanastoica
A Summer of Discontent by Susanna Gregory
3.0
I usually like Gregory's complex plots even though they can be overdone and not fully believable, but this mystery is just ridiculous; in the end we find out that everyone committed one crime or another, that there are at least 3 if not more different murderers and even more who are complicit...
Also, there's two other items that strung the wrong chord, and for which I would give any other book "2" or "1" stars out of 5, but I'm giving Gregory the benefit of a "3" because I love this series:
* the portrayal of de Lisle's daughter is just SO SEXIST it's completely ridiculous. She is idiotic, beautiful, has a "perfect body" as she so declares, and is just too crazy to be believable (she runs around trying to have sex with everyone, is subsequently called "easy", a "whore" and the like)... I've heard of people born with a lower mental capacity but I have never heard of someone with a low IQ but a perfect body who just walks around trying to jump into bed with everyone. And, the way the other characters treat her is just incredibly sexist, they are all exasperated, annoyed, ugh. NO, Gregory. NO. I couldn't believe a WOMAN wrote this character.
* at times throughout the novel, the story jumped to Michael. This is a HUGE disruption in narrative, as for 7.5 books, the narrator only ever tells us what Matthew does. Yet in this one, we are told about Michael does without Matthew, and it's REALLY discongruent.
Also, there's two other items that strung the wrong chord, and for which I would give any other book "2" or "1" stars out of 5, but I'm giving Gregory the benefit of a "3" because I love this series:
* the portrayal of de Lisle's daughter is just SO SEXIST it's completely ridiculous. She is idiotic, beautiful, has a "perfect body" as she so declares, and is just too crazy to be believable (she runs around trying to have sex with everyone, is subsequently called "easy", a "whore" and the like)... I've heard of people born with a lower mental capacity but I have never heard of someone with a low IQ but a perfect body who just walks around trying to jump into bed with everyone. And, the way the other characters treat her is just incredibly sexist, they are all exasperated, annoyed, ugh. NO, Gregory. NO. I couldn't believe a WOMAN wrote this character.
* at times throughout the novel, the story jumped to Michael. This is a HUGE disruption in narrative, as for 7.5 books, the narrator only ever tells us what Matthew does. Yet in this one, we are told about Michael does without Matthew, and it's REALLY discongruent.