Book 108
The Mystery of Nevermore by C.S. Poe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Thank to netgalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for a review and in no way influenced the review. I really enjoyed this, especially the first half where we really get to know Sebastian Snow. He owns a successful antique shop, is in a strained relationship with a closeted cop, Neil, has a very supportive father and has achromasia, a lack of cones in the retina causing not only color blindness but a loss of sharp vision (and the author did seem to do a bit of research on this).
Like in all amateur sleuth stories, something has to happen to draw him into the mystery. In this case, someone buries a pig heart under the floor boards of his shop but Sebastian gets off lightly as other antique dealers end up murdered all in ways that reflect Edgar Allan Poe's stories/poems. This is how he meets Calvin Winter, homicide detective.
Calvin is as frosty as his name and he's not thrilled with Sebastian's nebby ways. He doesn't want Sebastian butting into the case but of course, like every amateur sleuth everywhere, Sebastian feels compelled to do so.
The bodies keep falling. His relationship with Neil implodes as his relationship with Calvin heats up. And like most mysteries there's a splashy violent ending that I don't want to spoil. I'd like to see where this series goes.
I do, however, have a few spoilery things to say so that's your warning. You can stop reading now if you haven't read the book.
spoilers
okay, this was nearly a star lower. I liked the story over all and I liked the writing style which saved that star but there were things that did annoy me (mostly personal choice sort of things).
I did dislike how Seb and Calvin got together because a) Sebastian basically cheated on Neil even though he was already done with Neil in his head b) and more importantly there is no way Calvin could have cleared Sebastian by this point. They've had like three conversations and he jumps right into sex with Sebastian. Very unprofessional and that's usually a deal breaker for me so it says something about the story that I kept reading.
Sebastian falls hard on amateur sleuth tropes of doing stupid things like not telling the cops about things that are very obviously important and/or going after the killer on his own. I expect this in amateur sleuth fiction (and is why I read little of it even though mystery is the genre I read the most). However, it does make you want to shake sense into him.
But the thing that bothered me the most was Sebastian's utter failure to understand why both Neil and Calvin are closeted. He basically calls them cowards and ashamed of themselves. To me that is completely dismissive of the fact that there truly are jobs where being out means your career is deadended. Yes, it's horribly unfair but that's still reality. His argument is if no one takes a stand, it'll never change. That is true but would have carried more weight if he had tried to understand Neil and Calvin's point of view and he doesn't.
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