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A review by english_lady03
The Death Beat by Fiona Veitch Smith
3.0
The third installment of the Poppy Denby Investigates series delivers all the mystery, style and verve of the others, set in the Roaring Twenties, and featuring the sharp and smart young reporter, who uses her wits and skills as a reporter to solve find a story and usually a mystery or two- with some help from her friends.
Rollo, the editor, the erstwhile Aunt Dorothy, and Poppy's best friend the aspiring young actress Delilah Marconi come into their own in this one. Or at least the former two do, I've never really found Delilah to be a very deep or developed character- she comes over as quite shallow. Some readers remarked on how the story sometimes got bogged down with details about food and the characters' social life, although that did not really bother me.
There were however, two things which bothered me with this story. One thing, as another person pointed out, is that there is nothing wrong with diversity, but here, there's so much of it that it appears a little- tokenistic, for lack of a better word.
The second is the political correctness, which might really prove annoying to some readers who want pure escapism. I must confess even I found it a bit in your face and irritating at times, I understand the 20s were not so long ago, and many modern ideologies and ideas were developing then, but some things just came over as a little preachy and dogmatic.
As an example, Poppy basically breaks up with her boyfriend because he doesn't support her career aspirations. OK, fair enough. Even I might do that- BUT, Poppy very much represents the modern ideal of a woman who wants it all. Love, family AND full time high flying career. No compromise. For a long time society has told women that this is what we should aspire to, and that we can have our cake and eat it, but at what cost? Stress related diseases in women are at an all time high, and now its swung in the opposite direction, so that women who choose to pause their career to stay home and look after their children are looked down upon.
So I do sort of think there should perhaps be more consideration or exploration of the consequences of of such choices. Maybe there was not room for that in the narrative, but I thought it bore a mention.
Thanks to Lion Fiction for the PDF of this title via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own.
Rollo, the editor, the erstwhile Aunt Dorothy, and Poppy's best friend the aspiring young actress Delilah Marconi come into their own in this one. Or at least the former two do, I've never really found Delilah to be a very deep or developed character- she comes over as quite shallow. Some readers remarked on how the story sometimes got bogged down with details about food and the characters' social life, although that did not really bother me.
There were however, two things which bothered me with this story. One thing, as another person pointed out, is that there is nothing wrong with diversity, but here, there's so much of it that it appears a little- tokenistic, for lack of a better word.
The second is the political correctness, which might really prove annoying to some readers who want pure escapism. I must confess even I found it a bit in your face and irritating at times, I understand the 20s were not so long ago, and many modern ideologies and ideas were developing then, but some things just came over as a little preachy and dogmatic.
As an example, Poppy basically breaks up with her boyfriend because he doesn't support her career aspirations. OK, fair enough. Even I might do that- BUT, Poppy very much represents the modern ideal of a woman who wants it all. Love, family AND full time high flying career. No compromise. For a long time society has told women that this is what we should aspire to, and that we can have our cake and eat it, but at what cost? Stress related diseases in women are at an all time high, and now its swung in the opposite direction, so that women who choose to pause their career to stay home and look after their children are looked down upon.
So I do sort of think there should perhaps be more consideration or exploration of the consequences of of such choices. Maybe there was not room for that in the narrative, but I thought it bore a mention.
Thanks to Lion Fiction for the PDF of this title via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own.