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A review by iphigenie72
The Rasp by Philip MacDonald
2.0
A English cabinet minister is killed in his study. Anthony Gethryn, a wealthy man, a former war spy and associated with a newspaper, investigates.
I thought the start of the mystery was interesting though I had a pretty good idea who was the culprit early on, but then Anthony starts having conversations with different witnesses that are not in the book. I always think that an author should not do the behind the scenes thing and yet tell the reader about it, I love the Inspector Alleyn's books by [a:Ngaio Marsh|68144|Ngaio Marsh|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1237946649p2/68144.jpg] but she tends to have her inspector explains things to his sergeant in his ear and that's annoys me so here Mr. McDonald does it too. The way the crime was committed is very ingenious (I didn't guess that), but the exposition is put in a very long chapter in the form of a report Anthony makes to the police... its just long and makes an interesting and clever murder become an academic paper! And, yes another thing that didn't work for me, there's a romance for Anthony of love at first sight.
In the end, I was pretty disappointed in this story, I think there's a good base, it's just poorly executed.
I thought the start of the mystery was interesting though I had a pretty good idea who was the culprit early on, but then Anthony starts having conversations with different witnesses that are not in the book. I always think that an author should not do the behind the scenes thing and yet tell the reader about it, I love the Inspector Alleyn's books by [a:Ngaio Marsh|68144|Ngaio Marsh|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1237946649p2/68144.jpg] but she tends to have her inspector explains things to his sergeant in his ear and that's annoys me so here Mr. McDonald does it too. The way the crime was committed is very ingenious (I didn't guess that), but the exposition is put in a very long chapter in the form of a report Anthony makes to the police... its just long and makes an interesting and clever murder become an academic paper! And, yes another thing that didn't work for me, there's a romance for Anthony of love at first sight.
In the end, I was pretty disappointed in this story, I think there's a good base, it's just poorly executed.