I loved this. The characters, the angst, the relationships, the details about being blind in that period (my Dad used to teach blind kids, so I know a bit about the history of that), the music, the understatement.
Unfortunately, I did not like the sequel very much at all, despite a lot of thematic and setting elements that I would have expected to like. I have the third book but haven't read it yet.
Yes! I loved the details about being blind! Particularly because I used to obsessively read about Helen Keller when I was a kid; all the notes about Perkins and Braille and the placement of things was awesome.
Oh, and an interesting companion piece might be an older book, Josephine Tey's Brat Farrar, which has a very similar plot. Smith's is better, though, and honestly if I were to recommend a Tey to you I'd go with To Love and Be Wise.
Yes, Tey is a mystery writer, but an unconventional one. To Love and Be Wise... um. What I think you'll like about it is completely spoilery; I would avoid reading reviews of it for that reason. But I think you'd get a kick out of it.
To Love and Be WiserachelmanijaApril 22 2007, 00:27:41 UTC
Excerpted from my [very spoilery] review:
Tey is best-known for The Daughter of Time, in which her detective hero, Inspector Alan Grant, investigates the case of Richard III by reading history books while flat on his back in a hospital bed. Brat Farrar, an impersonation novel, is also quite good; and The Singing sands, starring Alan Grant again, is very atmospheric.
All of those have the feeling of traditional English murder mysteries, but not the basic "someone gets murdered in a country house" plot. Same with To Love and Be Wise, which was written in 1951: a time which overlaps with Agatha Christie, another classic English mystery writer.
Grant goes to a party, and spots a strikingly handsome young man, an American photographer named Leslie Searle. I cannot but read his policeman's observations as incredibly slashy:
Was it possible, Grant wondered, that those cheekbones were being wasted in a stockbroker's office? Or was it perhaps that the soft light of Messrs Ross and Cromarty's expensive lamps flattered that nice straight
( ... )
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Unfortunately, I did not like the sequel very much at all, despite a lot of thematic and setting elements that I would have expected to like. I have the third book but haven't read it yet.
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Tey is best-known for The Daughter of Time, in which her detective hero, Inspector Alan Grant, investigates the case of Richard III by reading history books while flat on his back in a hospital bed. Brat Farrar, an impersonation novel, is also quite good; and The Singing sands, starring Alan Grant again, is very atmospheric.
All of those have the feeling of traditional English murder mysteries, but not the basic "someone gets murdered in a country house" plot. Same with To Love and Be Wise, which was written in 1951: a time which overlaps with Agatha Christie, another classic English mystery writer.
Grant goes to a party, and spots a strikingly handsome young man, an American photographer named Leslie Searle. I cannot but read his policeman's observations as incredibly slashy:
Was it possible, Grant wondered, that those cheekbones were being wasted in a stockbroker's office? Or was it perhaps that the soft light of Messrs Ross and Cromarty's expensive lamps flattered that nice straight ( ... )
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