(no subject)
Since quite a few of you replied to my post asking for murder mystery recommendations, I thought I'd put up some reviews. I have tried not to spoil any of them but it's not altogether easy to review murder mysteries without giving something away.. Any further recommendations/thoughts welcome!
I've read a couple of David Roberts novels now and they really are quite fun. He writes nicely and I'm always a sucker for novels set or written in the 30s - see my Sayers obsession. David Roberts is quite obviously writing Dorothy L. Sayers fanfic and that definitely plays into why I like him. The one thing that I am finding a bit annoying about his novels is that his hero (Peter Wimsey Lite) sounds like a model GCSE history answer - he has exactly the view of the buildup to WWII that has been accepted as true - and his heroine (similar but not quite Harriet Vane) is a communist journalist who is quite clearly wrong about the nature of communism and spends most of her time being slowly disillusioned. I just find this a bit pat and would much prefer it if our hero wasn't always right about everything and our heroine always wrong. I would have particularly have preferred it if our hero had slight fascist sympathies - as many of the upper and middle classes did for a while in the '30s. Still, I enjoy the novels anyway and will continue to pick up any that come my way. This one was Sweet Poison but they all seem to be of a similar standard and are part of a series.
I really wanted to like Margery Allingham's Mystery Mile - the author is another former Perse Girl and a contemporary of Agatha Christie. I did like the prose style and quite liked the Peter Wimsey clone hero. But.. I found the plot quite tedious. It was more of a thriller than a murder mystery and only really had one twist at the end which I'd seen coming for quite some pages. So, kinda meh. I will probably give her another try because prose style is probably what I'm pickiest about and I liked hers but will try and pick out one next time that looks more like a classic murder mystery and less like a thriller.
I really enjoyed Josephine Tey's Miss Pym Disposes qua novel. It was beautifully written, got the balance right between description and dialogue, loved the characters and setting. But.. the plot was really not great. There were only ever two murder suspects and it was obvious that it was going to be the least likely one. It would have been much more fun to read if there had been more of a mystery element to that. I also detested the very ending. I can't really explain why without spoiling the novel - if someone who has read this wants to discuss it, feel free to e-mail me and I will rant about it to you. Will certainly try another of hers though.
I've read quite a few Veronica Stallwood novels by now. They're not of the quality where I would want to own them and reread them but they're very readable and the plots are good enough that I tend not to be able to guess the ending immediately. This one - Oxford Exit - is definitely the best I've read of hers though. The style is more interesting and I love that it's about disappearing books from the Bodleian/other Oxford libraries. I thoroughly recommend it to the librarians on my friends list.
An Air that Kills, by Andrew Taylor, I rather enjoyed. It's not spectacularly good but it's genuinely chilling in parts, has a solid plot and is nicely written.
P.D.James, A Taste for Death, I was a bit disappointed by. It started really well but was more like a thriller than a murder mystery - which I don't really care for - and the descriptive passages were just far far too lengthy. I ended up skipping them by the end as there would be 2-3 pages of long description at the beginning of almost every chapter and they weren't really adding much. I liked the characterisation, though, and may pick up another if I see one that looks more to my taste.
I've read a couple of David Roberts novels now and they really are quite fun. He writes nicely and I'm always a sucker for novels set or written in the 30s - see my Sayers obsession. David Roberts is quite obviously writing Dorothy L. Sayers fanfic and that definitely plays into why I like him. The one thing that I am finding a bit annoying about his novels is that his hero (Peter Wimsey Lite) sounds like a model GCSE history answer - he has exactly the view of the buildup to WWII that has been accepted as true - and his heroine (similar but not quite Harriet Vane) is a communist journalist who is quite clearly wrong about the nature of communism and spends most of her time being slowly disillusioned. I just find this a bit pat and would much prefer it if our hero wasn't always right about everything and our heroine always wrong. I would have particularly have preferred it if our hero had slight fascist sympathies - as many of the upper and middle classes did for a while in the '30s. Still, I enjoy the novels anyway and will continue to pick up any that come my way. This one was Sweet Poison but they all seem to be of a similar standard and are part of a series.
I really wanted to like Margery Allingham's Mystery Mile - the author is another former Perse Girl and a contemporary of Agatha Christie. I did like the prose style and quite liked the Peter Wimsey clone hero. But.. I found the plot quite tedious. It was more of a thriller than a murder mystery and only really had one twist at the end which I'd seen coming for quite some pages. So, kinda meh. I will probably give her another try because prose style is probably what I'm pickiest about and I liked hers but will try and pick out one next time that looks more like a classic murder mystery and less like a thriller.
I really enjoyed Josephine Tey's Miss Pym Disposes qua novel. It was beautifully written, got the balance right between description and dialogue, loved the characters and setting. But.. the plot was really not great. There were only ever two murder suspects and it was obvious that it was going to be the least likely one. It would have been much more fun to read if there had been more of a mystery element to that. I also detested the very ending. I can't really explain why without spoiling the novel - if someone who has read this wants to discuss it, feel free to e-mail me and I will rant about it to you. Will certainly try another of hers though.
I've read quite a few Veronica Stallwood novels by now. They're not of the quality where I would want to own them and reread them but they're very readable and the plots are good enough that I tend not to be able to guess the ending immediately. This one - Oxford Exit - is definitely the best I've read of hers though. The style is more interesting and I love that it's about disappearing books from the Bodleian/other Oxford libraries. I thoroughly recommend it to the librarians on my friends list.
An Air that Kills, by Andrew Taylor, I rather enjoyed. It's not spectacularly good but it's genuinely chilling in parts, has a solid plot and is nicely written.
P.D.James, A Taste for Death, I was a bit disappointed by. It started really well but was more like a thriller than a murder mystery - which I don't really care for - and the descriptive passages were just far far too lengthy. I ended up skipping them by the end as there would be 2-3 pages of long description at the beginning of almost every chapter and they weren't really adding much. I liked the characterisation, though, and may pick up another if I see one that looks more to my taste.