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ashleylm's review
4.0
Once of my favourites in the series, and oh, ultimately so dark. Thankfully (despite some bad apples, as I'm sure there are in any industry) real life Dovers are few-and-far-between.
It starts unexpectedly—a natural disaster has occurred, and our main characters have arrived very shortly afterward, as a body's been discovered whose death could not be attributed to the disaster. Dover does his usual trying-to-solve-things-by-sleeping method, and MacGregor gets out and looks about. Ultimately Dover does come to a solution, but things go painfully awry.
As usual it kept me engaged, all the characters were vividly drawn, and the solution was both surprising but consistent. This is not a cosy read (I like cosy, but not twee ... I enjoy Christie and Sayers, but not mysteries solved by cats who live in bake shops), ultimately, but not so far from it that I couldn't enjoy it—I enjoyed it very much. It's like how Desperate Housewives was just a little bit darker than the typical soap, while still being a soap.
(5* = amazing, terrific book, one of my all-time favourites, 4* = very good book, 3* = good book, but nothing to particularly rave about, 2* = disappointing book, and 1* = awful, just awful. As a statistician I know most books are 3s, but I am biased in my selection and end up mostly with 4s, thank goodness.)
1 like
It starts unexpectedly—a natural disaster has occurred, and our main characters have arrived very shortly afterward, as a body's been discovered whose death could not be attributed to the disaster. Dover does his usual trying-to-solve-things-by-sleeping method, and MacGregor gets out and looks about. Ultimately Dover does come to a solution, but things go painfully awry.
As usual it kept me engaged, all the characters were vividly drawn, and the solution was both surprising but consistent. This is not a cosy read (I like cosy, but not twee ... I enjoy Christie and Sayers, but not mysteries solved by cats who live in bake shops), ultimately, but not so far from it that I couldn't enjoy it—I enjoyed it very much. It's like how Desperate Housewives was just a little bit darker than the typical soap, while still being a soap.
(5* = amazing, terrific book, one of my all-time favourites, 4* = very good book, 3* = good book, but nothing to particularly rave about, 2* = disappointing book, and 1* = awful, just awful. As a statistician I know most books are 3s, but I am biased in my selection and end up mostly with 4s, thank goodness.)
1 like
jrenee's review
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
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