4.5 stars…I ended up really enjoying this book, finding it vastly entertaining. That’s a great thing to say about a book I nearly DNFed a couple times at the start. Once it really got started I was all in. The last part of the book is one of the best mystery denouements I’ve ever read.
At the start I was thrown by the different fonts and font sizes, and the switch in narrative voice. I am generally not a fan of third person narration in present tense…it just seems too much like “telling instead of showing” and comes off as amateurish. And swapping that with Joyce’s first person diary writing kept me off kilter. After a while the voice adjustments settled, the switch in fonts made more sense (though thank goodness for an ereader where I could enlarge the font in those diary sections!) and it seemed to me the writing got better. Could be my imagination or maybe me adjusting, but it seemed to come off less like “telling.”
The book is long, very long, and at first that was another thing that was off putting because so much seemed extraneous. That turned out not to be true and by the time I was truly invested I understood better. The character development is wonderfully done. The main characters really came alive for me as if they were living, breathing people, the author having truly created three dimensional characters. In my head I kept picturing particular actors in these roles and I could just see this as a movie or series. The secondary characters played a big role in moving the storyline and that is always a big plus for me.
The mysteries and secrets in this book abound. It is all woven together so well and the story arc is so well constructed that as it all comes to a conclusion I found myself wanting to applaud. This is a perfect specimen of a British country murder mystery and I believe Dame Agatha would be entertained. I also liked the messaging. There are some interesting moral questions posed here and we also get a chance to think about our attitudes and biases towards the older members of society.
When the book ended I chastised my earlier self for being so impatient and unwilling to step outside my comfort zone. I’m glad I stuck it out and listened to the opinions of friends I trust. I can go into book two knowing what to expect and allow myself to enjoy it from the outset.
If you love a good whodunit with lots of possibilities you will really enjoy this book.
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Top reviews from other countries
Robert Austin
Four enterprising seniors in a tiny village become the most unusual crime solvers.
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Você se apaixona pelos personagens!
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