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natniss's review
3.0
Although I found this a fun mystery, I feel like there were too many characters to keep track of. There are so many nuns and many of them only speak to the protagonist once and briefly. I also found the ending a bit too far-fetched, but I enjoyed it overall.
verityw's review
4.0
Another clever and twisty entry in the series. Dandy is investigating a death and a fire at a convent, while Alec is investigating a break out at an asylum nearby which happened on the same night. As freqeuently happens in this series, the mystery is darker than you expect that it's going to be. But they're very, very satisfying.
bananatricky's review
4.0
Dandy is drawn to a convent on a bleak Lanarkshire moor to investigate a series of disturbances which followed the destruction of the chapel by fire on Christmas Eve and the death of the Mother Superior in the same fire. At the same time Alec is asked to the same moor to help his old friend who is accused of setting the fire and killing Mother Mary. Alec's friend is suffering shell-shock, or PTSD as we would call it now, and is living in a psychiatric hospital, which had a prisoner break-out on the same night that Mother Mary died.
The acting Mother, also called Sister Mary confusingly, wants to unravel the mystery of Mother Mary's death, and her last words, and suspects that disturbances since then are not the acts of the two inmates who remain on the loose, but are in fact perpetrated by one of the sisters.
This is another highly satisfying murder mystery. As they used to say on the tv show Through The Keyhole, 'the clues are there' and indeed they were. I noticed the significance of some of the descriptions and had my suspicions but nothing like the elegance of the final solution, even if it did require the perpetrators to explain their motives Scooby Doo-style :)
The acting Mother, also called Sister Mary confusingly, wants to unravel the mystery of Mother Mary's death, and her last words, and suspects that disturbances since then are not the acts of the two inmates who remain on the loose, but are in fact perpetrated by one of the sisters.
This is another highly satisfying murder mystery. As they used to say on the tv show Through The Keyhole, 'the clues are there' and indeed they were. I noticed the significance of some of the descriptions and had my suspicions but nothing like the elegance of the final solution, even if it did require the perpetrators to explain their motives Scooby Doo-style :)
briarfairchild's review
4.0
Most enjoyable. I always enjoy the relationships in the Dandy Gilver books. The really solid friendship between Dandy and Alec is very refreshing. And Dandy's marriage, which couldn't be described as happy, but isn't filled with horrible misery either. It's all very down-to-earth and pleasing.
I was also pretty impressed that I didn't get too confused with all the nuns floating about, not to mention nurses and random extras too! A bit of skilled storytelling there, I think. The book is well plotted - and pretty much minus the slightly bonkers denouements that Dandy Gilver's cases tend to end with!
In conclusion, quietly enjoyable.
I was also pretty impressed that I didn't get too confused with all the nuns floating about, not to mention nurses and random extras too! A bit of skilled storytelling there, I think. The book is well plotted - and pretty much minus the slightly bonkers denouements that Dandy Gilver's cases tend to end with!
In conclusion, quietly enjoyable.
tishbee's review
4.0
Another deliciously good page turner of a cozy mystery server up by Catriona McPherson. The writing, as usual, is a cut above the genre and I'm still chuckling at the little bit of misdirection artfully thrown in as things were picking up pace toward a conclusion that made me very smugly presume to have guessed whodunnit before the end. I admit, I was fooled and the author suddenly changing gears on me made for a very satisfying ending.
I love Dandy Gilver, I just wish more than just the first in the series was available on audiobook in Australia!
I love Dandy Gilver, I just wish more than just the first in the series was available on audiobook in Australia!
balancinghistorybooks's review
1.0
I must admit that I'm not familiar with this book series, but I found that it took so much time to get up the pace and actually start going anywhere that I had completely lost interest in it.
jayvall's review
3.0
On some level, I question why I read this series. Many times I spend the length of book trying to figure out what the fuck the author is hinting at because she's such a genteel writer at times, I can't tell what's happened, or what she's trying to say without saying. Then there's the Scots culture on top, that I also don't understand, along with life in the 1930s. So there's a lot of barriers to entry for me. But for some reason I enjoy the hell out of this series and jump through international hoops to procure myself copies of the latest book rather than waiting for it to get published in the US, whenever that may be.
What made this book confusing was all the nuns. Yes, they included a cast of characters in the front matter but flipping back to that on a kindle isn't that easy. Although McPherson did a good job of differentiating the different nuns' personalities, there were just too many of them to keep track of. The fact that they left before solving the mystery was a bit odd to me, but I thought the big confrontation was well done. I had had an inkling of who the villain was early on but dismissed it, so both yay, and womp womp to me.
What made this book confusing was all the nuns. Yes, they included a cast of characters in the front matter but flipping back to that on a kindle isn't that easy. Although McPherson did a good job of differentiating the different nuns' personalities, there were just too many of them to keep track of. The fact that they left before solving the mystery was a bit odd to me, but I thought the big confrontation was well done. I had had an inkling of who the villain was early on but dismissed it, so both yay, and womp womp to me.
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