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A review by bookish_kristina
Murder at the Seven Dials by Cara Devlin
4.0
3.5 stars - a mystery with potential!
I enjoyed this regency mystery for the most part. It was well written and engaging and had some cool and original ideas. The execution was not quite there though and the middle was kind of plodding and cumbersome.
First off, I really liked the male lead in this, Officer Hugh Marsden, but I’ve gotta be honest, he was low-key bad at his job. As the bastard son of a Viscount, he has a hatred for the aristocracy and a scandalous past (that is never fully revealed to us in this book). He is a witty and somewhat obstinate character and at first I kind of liked that he seemed to be in law enforcement for the money and action and not so much for the actual crime solving. But as the book went on I had a bit more trouble believing that he would completely eschew all detective work until he was forced to by the meddling duchess. I think the author kind of got herself in trouble here and did a bit of an about face halfway through where Hugh became ashamed of his behaviour and quickly got on board with proper detective work. It was a bit too easy that he changed his mind so quickly, and I would have liked him to be more grudging or resistant to having to investigate rather than suddenly being a noble, proper officer.
Secondly, I liked the whole idea of the duchess’ character, her paranormal ability and her being badly treated and victimized for it. I’m eager to see more about her past and her time in the asylum, but again, the depiction of her character was more show than tell here as she seemed to be able to turn her powers on and off in the middle of the book, where at the beginning she was very much aware and reticent to touch anything lest her powers take over her consciousness. I needed a bit more consistency here and more development of her ability and her background.
Thirdly, the mystery itself got very bogged down in the middle and didn’t progress forward quickly enough for me. It seemed to use the same hook - Audrey running off on a tear and Hugh having to catch up and follow her- several times. It got repetitive and I got bored.
Lastly, the budding feelings between Hugh and Audrey are pretty problematic now. The author has written herself into a corner with Audrey’s marriage of convenience with the Duke if she’s going to pursue the romance between the duchess and Marsden. Unless she plans on killing off the Duke -who is entirely likeable - or trying to petition for divorce, this will always just be laborious pining between these two in all future books. Maybe that is her plan, but if it is I will quickly grow tired of it.
That all being said this was interesting and I did like both characters and all the drama and potential for more in future stories. This was a decent first book in the series and I will be reading further to see how this author will build upon this compelling duo.
I enjoyed this regency mystery for the most part. It was well written and engaging and had some cool and original ideas. The execution was not quite there though and the middle was kind of plodding and cumbersome.
First off, I really liked the male lead in this, Officer Hugh Marsden, but I’ve gotta be honest, he was low-key bad at his job. As the bastard son of a Viscount, he has a hatred for the aristocracy and a scandalous past (that is never fully revealed to us in this book). He is a witty and somewhat obstinate character and at first I kind of liked that he seemed to be in law enforcement for the money and action and not so much for the actual crime solving. But as the book went on I had a bit more trouble believing that he would completely eschew all detective work until he was forced to by the meddling duchess. I think the author kind of got herself in trouble here and did a bit of an about face halfway through where Hugh became ashamed of his behaviour and quickly got on board with proper detective work. It was a bit too easy that he changed his mind so quickly, and I would have liked him to be more grudging or resistant to having to investigate rather than suddenly being a noble, proper officer.
Secondly, I liked the whole idea of the duchess’ character, her paranormal ability and her being badly treated and victimized for it. I’m eager to see more about her past and her time in the asylum, but again, the depiction of her character was more show than tell here as she seemed to be able to turn her powers on and off in the middle of the book, where at the beginning she was very much aware and reticent to touch anything lest her powers take over her consciousness. I needed a bit more consistency here and more development of her ability and her background.
Thirdly, the mystery itself got very bogged down in the middle and didn’t progress forward quickly enough for me. It seemed to use the same hook - Audrey running off on a tear and Hugh having to catch up and follow her- several times. It got repetitive and I got bored.
Lastly, the budding feelings between Hugh and Audrey are pretty problematic now. The author has written herself into a corner with Audrey’s marriage of convenience with the Duke if she’s going to pursue the romance between the duchess and Marsden. Unless she plans on killing off the Duke -who is entirely likeable - or trying to petition for divorce, this will always just be laborious pining between these two in all future books. Maybe that is her plan, but if it is I will quickly grow tired of it.
That all being said this was interesting and I did like both characters and all the drama and potential for more in future stories. This was a decent first book in the series and I will be reading further to see how this author will build upon this compelling duo.