A review by ruthie_the_librarian
Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin

mysterious slow-paced

2.0

I'd had high hopes, as this sounded an interesting premise for a story but for me, I just felt something was missing in the execution.  My biggest issue was with the protagonist, who I felt like I didn't know very well, didn't much care for, and who kept making the most ridiculous mistakes in everything he did.  And not in a funny way, for comedic value, but rather in a way that left me shouting 'what is wrong with you, have you never read any Agatha Christie?!'  Honestly, he was just asking to be arrested the whole way through, and I was never quite sure why we were seeing him behave in this way - was the character just meant to be a bit stupid, or was it to throw us off the scent of something else going on...Whatever the intentions, it meant that I didn't believe that he could investigate the crime himself, because he seemed so inept, and every time he tried to find something out it felt a little painful, so that left me struggling with the story.

I think I'd also assumed the book would be more Richard Osman style, more cosy crime, and it has edges of that at times.  But it wasn't really funny, or at least it wasn't funny to me, and on the whole the style of writing wasn't to my liking.  I did read it to the end rather than abandoning it part way, however, so there was enough to it that it kept me reading.

With thanks to Netgalley for my copy.
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