Scan barcode
A review by depizan
Invitation to Die by Barbara Cleverly
2.0
This was the most strangely organized mystery I've ever read. It starts with a chapter about a person who is of no importance to the plot whatsoever, starts to get into the mystery, then does a time jump to a suspect (in the murder that hasn't happened yet) talking to the detective and giving a lengthy war story, then jumps back to the discovery of the body and continues on from there. It's effectively an un-mystery. The order the story is told in completely robs it of any mystery other than "wtf?" (Okay, that's probably going too far, as you only get part of the solution before the question.)
If it had been told in chronological order it would've been better. Then the war story would actually be interesting, because we'd understand what it had to do with the plot and it would be answering questions we actually had. Also, the events prior to the murder should've been condensed. As it's written, it's as if the author expects us to be interested in events without context or any investment in the characters. Which makes for very odd reading. Hell, given that we find out some of the events during the investigation, you could probably start the book with the body being found, proceed chronologically and have a much more gripping read.
If it had been told in chronological order it would've been better. Then the war story would actually be interesting, because we'd understand what it had to do with the plot and it would be answering questions we actually had. Also, the events prior to the murder should've been condensed. As it's written, it's as if the author expects us to be interested in events without context or any investment in the characters. Which makes for very odd reading. Hell, given that we find out some of the events during the investigation, you could probably start the book with the body being found, proceed chronologically and have a much more gripping read.