A review by bookish_kristina
Murder by Lamplight by Patrice McDonough

2.0

I want to be nice but woof, this book.

I will say that the author seems like she really enjoyed the research, the time period and the subject matter and the prose was well written, unfortunately that doesn’t make up for dragging plot, excessive info dumping and stilted dialogue. Please find a really strict editor next time and listen to them.
All this info, though probably really interesting to a person doing the research, dragged the story down and made this book a chore to read. A book can be technically well written but also have a very bad reader experience and though I believe authors should write what they love, they have to consider how a reader will digest a story and this story was like eating a brick. Debut author’s syndrome is really at play here; just because you researched all this info doesn’t make it plot necessary, it’s ok to not include it, the effort wasn’t wasted.
No one needed so much information on sewer systems through the ages, NO ONE!!