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A review by usbsticky
The Blood Card by Elly Griffiths
5.0
I seldom give 5 star reviews so you can say I really enjoyed this book. The setting is post-war Britain at the time of QEII's coronation and the story revolves around the police of Brighton, a small seaside vacation town in England and the performing/entertainment community. This is the 3rd book in the series but you don't need to have read the first two to read this book.
The post-war setting is really well done. I don't know if the author is British but she's done a bang up job of the time, place and people. The performing community includes live stage acts such as dancers, impressionists and magicians as well as a British Roma family.
The main characters are Edgar Stephens a detective inspector, Max Mephisto a magician who knew him during the war, Ruby who is Max's daughter and a fellow magician and Emma a detective sergeant.
The backdrop story is about persons unknown planning to disrupt the upcoming coronation and I say backdrop because this is a character driven novel and the plot actually takes second place to the people in it (for me anyway). I loved the character development and the characters themselves who are full of life, even the supporting ones. These are all just people going about their lives when they are interrupted by this event. There is even a little bit of romance going on and that to me was more suspenseful than the whodunit itself. The whodunit is revealed in a rush at the end, not by deduction but by action.
I was a bit sad when it ended because I want to know what happens next to all the characters. I'll definitely want to read any sequels coming up and I'll look up the first two books that I missed.
I got this book as a free ARC.
The post-war setting is really well done. I don't know if the author is British but she's done a bang up job of the time, place and people. The performing community includes live stage acts such as dancers, impressionists and magicians as well as a British Roma family.
The main characters are Edgar Stephens a detective inspector, Max Mephisto a magician who knew him during the war, Ruby who is Max's daughter and a fellow magician and Emma a detective sergeant.
The backdrop story is about persons unknown planning to disrupt the upcoming coronation and I say backdrop because this is a character driven novel and the plot actually takes second place to the people in it (for me anyway). I loved the character development and the characters themselves who are full of life, even the supporting ones. These are all just people going about their lives when they are interrupted by this event. There is even a little bit of romance going on and that to me was more suspenseful than the whodunit itself. The whodunit is revealed in a rush at the end, not by deduction but by action.
I was a bit sad when it ended because I want to know what happens next to all the characters. I'll definitely want to read any sequels coming up and I'll look up the first two books that I missed.
I got this book as a free ARC.