kleonard 's review for:

The Old Success by Martha Grimes

2.0

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While I mostly enjoyed this mystery, which involves a recent murder and a suspicious death in the past, I felt like I was dropping into a conversation in progress between several very close and insulated friends. Not having read Grimes's other books in this series, I'm certain that I missed out by not knowing some of the references in the book or the series's underlying arc. This installment, though, was not quite enjoyable or interesting enough to convince me to go to the beginning of the series and read the rest of the books. The characters aren't particularly interesting to me, their processes rely heavily on connections and power rather than personal investigation, and the predominance of male characters in power over female characters in less powerful roles or as victims didn't help.