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A review by robinwalter
The Art School Murders: A Golden Age Mystery by Moray Dalton
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
After the first two books of my 2023 DeanStreetDecember yielded a disappointment followed by a DNF, Dalton delivered delight.
This was another enjoyable outing from one of my favourite "GA" detectives. Collier is so very likeable - low-key laidback and quietly good at his job. Although that latter was less in evidence with this case. Dalton did a great job of littering the story with an absolute plethora of potential killers, resulting in quite a high body count. Unlike the Travers mystery that kicked off my December 2023 list where no one had the common decency to die until the story was more than a third done, this one got STRAIGHT down to business, with the first of several corpses on display gratifyingly early in the story. I didn't feel so bad about not working it out since Collier was thorooughly stumped too. One thing that impressed me was the utter lack of remorse from the murderer when caught, especially given the trigger for the first murder.
Once again too, another shout out to Dean Street Press for securing Curtis Evans' services in writing the intro - a wonderful explanation of the wartime blackout backdrop to the story and a helpful mention of a real historical serial killer I'd not heard of before. From begining to end, this was good read.
This was another enjoyable outing from one of my favourite "GA" detectives. Collier is so very likeable - low-key laidback and quietly good at his job. Although that latter was less in evidence with this case. Dalton did a great job of littering the story with an absolute plethora of potential killers, resulting in quite a high body count. Unlike the Travers mystery that kicked off my December 2023 list where no one had the common decency to die until the story was more than a third done, this one got STRAIGHT down to business, with the first of several corpses on display gratifyingly early in the story. I didn't feel so bad about not working it out since Collier was thorooughly stumped too. One thing that impressed me was the utter lack of remorse from the murderer when caught, especially given the trigger for the first murder.
Once again too, another shout out to Dean Street Press for securing Curtis Evans' services in writing the intro - a wonderful explanation of the wartime blackout backdrop to the story and a helpful mention of a real historical serial killer I'd not heard of before. From begining to end, this was good read.