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writerdgabrielle's reviews
181 reviews
Crime and Poetry by Amanda Flower
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Crime and Poetry is the first book in Amanda Flower's Magical Bookshop Mysteries series. Through this book, we are introduced to protagonist Violet Waverly, her grandmother, Daisy, and an assortment of villagers from the fictional Cascade Springs, New York, on the edge of Niagara Falls.
Violet, a PhD candidate in Transcendental Literature at a university in Chicago, is called home to Cascade Springs under false pretenses from her grandmother claiming to be on her death bed. After Violet's mother's death, Violet and Daisy became one another's only family and are, therefore quite close. Despite that, Violet has not been back to the New York village in the twelve years since her high school graduation, a point that is stressed heavily throughout the book.
Not twenty four hours after her arrival, there is a dead body in her grandmother's driveway and said grandmother is hauled off for questioning, as should be expected, given her relationship to the victim and the location of the body. Violet is never considered to be a suspect, at least not seriously, and no one ever even tells her not to leave town, two points I found a little clumsy but not enough to give up on the story.
i don't know if I missed the customary Chekov's gun in the opening scenes but I felt like the killer's reveal was a little out of the blue. I put the pieces together in the right place but I feel like I should have suspected them from the beginning, even if Violet didn't. That is one of the reasons this is only a three-star read for me. I don't want to figure out the ending in the first five chapters but I don't like being blindsided by new characters in the last five either.
The other reason for star deduction is the repetition. Each time Violet encounters someone new in the village, she contemplates the death of her high school friend and whether or not she will stay in the village after the murder is solved. Her grandmother is never just Daisy or just Grandma but always Grandma Daisy, which is a title used even by the chief of police in an official capacity. The bookstore is never simply "the store" or "the shop," it is always "Charming Books," like some kind of corporate product placement. And I might have been convinced that this is just the way Violet talks except she doesn't refer to other businesses in town by their full names every time. Sadie's shop is Sadie's shop. The water plant is just that. So, if it were meant to be a quirk of Violet's, it fell short of consistency.
Three stars, for my money, is C work. It did what it set out to do, there were some flaws that were noticeable but not insurmountable, and while nothing stood out as exceptionally well-done, I would read another in this series, though I don't expect to take extra strides to seek them out. I found Crime and Poetry at a thrift store and that is likely where I will find the next book in the series.
Violet, a PhD candidate in Transcendental Literature at a university in Chicago, is called home to Cascade Springs under false pretenses from her grandmother claiming to be on her death bed. After Violet's mother's death, Violet and Daisy became one another's only family and are, therefore quite close. Despite that, Violet has not been back to the New York village in the twelve years since her high school graduation, a point that is stressed heavily throughout the book.
Not twenty four hours after her arrival, there is a dead body in her grandmother's driveway and said grandmother is hauled off for questioning, as should be expected, given her relationship to the victim and the location of the body. Violet is never considered to be a suspect, at least not seriously, and no one ever even tells her not to leave town, two points I found a little clumsy but not enough to give up on the story.
i don't know if I missed the customary Chekov's gun in the opening scenes but I felt like the killer's reveal was a little out of the blue. I put the pieces together in the right place but I feel like I should have suspected them from the beginning, even if Violet didn't. That is one of the reasons this is only a three-star read for me. I don't want to figure out the ending in the first five chapters but I don't like being blindsided by new characters in the last five either.
The other reason for star deduction is the repetition. Each time Violet encounters someone new in the village, she contemplates the death of her high school friend and whether or not she will stay in the village after the murder is solved. Her grandmother is never just Daisy or just Grandma but always Grandma Daisy, which is a title used even by the chief of police in an official capacity. The bookstore is never simply "the store" or "the shop," it is always "Charming Books," like some kind of corporate product placement. And I might have been convinced that this is just the way Violet talks except she doesn't refer to other businesses in town by their full names every time. Sadie's shop is Sadie's shop. The water plant is just that. So, if it were meant to be a quirk of Violet's, it fell short of consistency.
Three stars, for my money, is C work. It did what it set out to do, there were some flaws that were noticeable but not insurmountable, and while nothing stood out as exceptionally well-done, I would read another in this series, though I don't expect to take extra strides to seek them out. I found Crime and Poetry at a thrift store and that is likely where I will find the next book in the series.