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liriel27 's review for:
A Beautiful Blue Death
by Charles Finch
Meh. This book was ok, I guess. The mystery is less than gripping, and the protagonist felt very...smug. In fact, there was kind of that taint of "I'm smarter than you, and I've done LOTS of research, and look! I'm writing Holmes, if Holmes were charming, ever-so-slightly unconventional, and not a raging druggie!" throughout the book. It lacked lightness and sparkle in the witty banter sections and a true sense of peril in the suspenseful ones.
You know what it felt like? Someone with a checklist. Every element is dutifully checked off, but it doesn't really live in the reader's imagination. I don't care about these people. They aren't so much flat as poor transcriptions of other characters I've already read. Also, the protagonist comes off as a snob, and the parts of his personality that are supposed to be cute/quirky just come off as...well, boring (his search for good boots springs to mind).
Unfortunately, I have the second book already. I'll read it, but I hope it's better than this.
Oh, and fair warning: one of the characters has the unfortunate nickname of "Toto." Be prepared to think of little yappy terriers every time she appears.
You know what it felt like? Someone with a checklist. Every element is dutifully checked off, but it doesn't really live in the reader's imagination. I don't care about these people. They aren't so much flat as poor transcriptions of other characters I've already read. Also, the protagonist comes off as a snob, and the parts of his personality that are supposed to be cute/quirky just come off as...well, boring (his search for good boots springs to mind).
Unfortunately, I have the second book already. I'll read it, but I hope it's better than this.
Oh, and fair warning: one of the characters has the unfortunate nickname of "Toto." Be prepared to think of little yappy terriers every time she appears.