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A review by ashleylm
Fear Stalks the Village by Ethel Lina White
5.0
Really rather marvellous. The writing itself felt fresh and non-dated, despite being 90 years old. I was absolutely delighted that, depending on intrepretation, this is not actually a murder mystery, it's an anonymous-letter mystery. I've never understand why 99.9% of mystery novels are solving murder mysteries, when other types of mysteries might be just as (or more) interesting, so this was a very pleasant change.
The author played fair, all the clues and knowledge given to the detective were also given to us. Despite a vast cast, I could tell all the characters apart (so often writers fail to worry about this, giving me names and no more, really), and they were a fun, diverse bunch, including some character types not before encountered--nothing remotely resembling a stock character.
Very recommended! But a bit of a page-turner, I've had two sleepless nights in a row.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
The author played fair, all the clues and knowledge given to the detective were also given to us. Despite a vast cast, I could tell all the characters apart (so often writers fail to worry about this, giving me names and no more, really), and they were a fun, diverse bunch, including some character types not before encountered--nothing remotely resembling a stock character.
Very recommended! But a bit of a page-turner, I've had two sleepless nights in a row.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!