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A review by dawntoduskbooks
A Clock Stopped Dead by J.M. Hall
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Before I start my review, I picked this up not knowing it was part of a series and thus read this without having read the previous books.
While the premise of the book (three retired teachers solving the mystery of the vanishing charity shop) was promising, I feel like this fell flat. There was too much book for the actual story and none of it felt overly plausible. There was also no urgency to solving the mystery, which I think meant the whole plot dawdled not just in a ‘cosy crime’ way but in a true dawdling with no purpose way.
I am open to reading the books in the series prior to this as I can see from reviews that this seems to have been inconsistent with the rest.
While the premise of the book (three retired teachers solving the mystery of the vanishing charity shop) was promising, I feel like this fell flat. There was too much book for the actual story and none of it felt overly plausible. There was also no urgency to solving the mystery, which I think meant the whole plot dawdled not just in a ‘cosy crime’ way but in a true dawdling with no purpose way.
I am open to reading the books in the series prior to this as I can see from reviews that this seems to have been inconsistent with the rest.