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mg_libros's review against another edition
2.0
Un libro con todos los componentes para gustarme: ingleses, una compañía de teatro, un detective...y me he aburrido bastante, hasta el punto de interesarme bastante poco quién era el asesino. No lo entiendo.
La parte positiva es que hay más libros, que me voy a ahorrar, claro. Una pena.
La parte positiva es que hay más libros, que me voy a ahorrar, claro. Una pena.
avidreadergirl1's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This was my first book by this author and, considering that it has been written a long time ago and is set during WWII, one does not feel remote but there are a few details that might have been left out.
Overall, the characters are all different but also revolving around the theatre world and the beautiful city of Oxford. Though most of the characters left me unmoved, Gervaise Fen being the exception, I mainly liked the plot.
Overall, the characters are all different but also revolving around the theatre world and the beautiful city of Oxford. Though most of the characters left me unmoved, Gervaise Fen being the exception, I mainly liked the plot.
staticdisplay's review against another edition
3.0
I've read a few other books in this series and enjoyed some of them more. the writing is dense with literary references, but also facetious and perhaps "unconventional," as Gervase Fen is a misanthrope who enjoys being rude to others, says "all my fur and whiskers" when he forgets something (which is often), and talks directly to the reader. there can be a fun energy, but the narrative can also drag at times. I didn't care about the secondary characters, and some of them had names that seemed designed to confuse (Jean/Jane, Nigel/Nicholas) considering how many characters there were (there are so many names in the world... did you really need to pick Jean and Jane). my favorite part was the ghost story an older professor tells.
I think throughout this series the women are treated pretty badly. (to be fair, a lot of the characters are treated pretty badly, but with the women it's because they're women and with the men it's because of their individual idiosyncratic being dull or a bad liar or whatever.) in this particular story it's highlighted by the fact that everyone is eager to see Yseut suffer. it's like pop culture when everyone was being mean to Megan Fox and just about any woman celebrity and now people are realizing that all of those women are people too with feelings and intelligence!
I think throughout this series the women are treated pretty badly. (to be fair, a lot of the characters are treated pretty badly, but with the women it's because they're women and with the men it's because of their individual idiosyncratic being dull or a bad liar or whatever.) in this particular story it's highlighted by the fact that everyone is eager to see Yseut suffer. it's like pop culture when everyone was being mean to Megan Fox and just about any woman celebrity and now people are realizing that all of those women are people too with feelings and intelligence!
1mpossiblealice's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed many aspects of this book and I'll definitely read more in the series. The Oxford setting is great, the writing is good (although I had to look up some words I didn't know, which is fine), and the story is good. Fen is an interesting detective although quite annoying when he keeps going on about how he solved it immediately but won't tell anyone who the killer is.
At times it felt like there were too many characters, the female characters aren't great and all seem quite blah and only interested in getting married, except for the victim, who everyone hates and they don't care that she's been murdered - in fact they think it's understandable, which was pretty bad. I also didn't get all the literary references and the whole gilded fly thing seemed pointless to me but am not sure I really got it.
I did enjoy the MR James references as I'm a big fan, and the storytelling in a college room by a fire was very MR James! I'll probably read the next book in the series and see how that goes.
At times it felt like there were too many characters, the female characters aren't great and all seem quite blah and only interested in getting married, except for the victim, who everyone hates and they don't care that she's been murdered - in fact they think it's understandable, which was pretty bad. I also didn't get all the literary references and the whole gilded fly thing seemed pointless to me but am not sure I really got it.
I did enjoy the MR James references as I'm a big fan, and the storytelling in a college room by a fire was very MR James! I'll probably read the next book in the series and see how that goes.
ashleylm's review against another edition
3.0
Meh. Didn't really grab me, characters were a bit one-note or no-note, plot resolution didn't seem clever (to be fair, I wasn't really keeping track by that point of the "clues"), but perhaps later volumes are better, I'll investigate. Good enough to keep me reading, but that's about it.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).
2readornot2read's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
knyvern's review against another edition
3.0
Yseut is a pompous actress who makes enemies of all around her in the theater. Not surprisingly she is discovered dead and Fen knows who did it though the police are baffled. Interesting read for a first book in a series and I am interested to see how Fen grows as a character.
stagasaurus's review against another edition
2.0
I forced myself to finish this. It wasn't awful, I just didn't find it enjoyable. The dialogue was good but I found Gervase Fen unbelievably irritating. Though it was funny when he put grease paint on his face. Other than that it was like Mycroft Holmes was the star of the show. The novel is very Oxfordy. Here's a sentence:
"The cinereous sky echoed the grey of innumerable walls; water ran in streams down the ivy which more or less shields the Keble from offensive comment; paused and momentarily glistened on the wrought-iron gates of Trinity; gathered in innumerable runnels and rivulets among the cobbles which surround the Radcliffe Camera, standing like a mustard-pot among various other cruets."
Now I get a little pissed off when people big up Hemingway but here is what he was fighting. Edmund Crispin does not kill his darlings. It's all a bit show-offy. Like watching an episode of Morse without Morse or Lewis in it. It amuses me that the Goodreads dictionary doesn't accept cinereous as a word.
I correctly guessed the murderer. In my mind there was only one person who Fen would protect. I found the solution unsatisfying though. I read mystery novels for pleasure. I know this is supposed to be farcical but there was little pleasure in it for me. Enough to send me back to Wodehouse and Agatha Christie.
"The cinereous sky echoed the grey of innumerable walls; water ran in streams down the ivy which more or less shields the Keble from offensive comment; paused and momentarily glistened on the wrought-iron gates of Trinity; gathered in innumerable runnels and rivulets among the cobbles which surround the Radcliffe Camera, standing like a mustard-pot among various other cruets."
Now I get a little pissed off when people big up Hemingway but here is what he was fighting. Edmund Crispin does not kill his darlings. It's all a bit show-offy. Like watching an episode of Morse without Morse or Lewis in it. It amuses me that the Goodreads dictionary doesn't accept cinereous as a word.
I correctly guessed the murderer. In my mind there was only one person who Fen would protect. I found the solution unsatisfying though. I read mystery novels for pleasure. I know this is supposed to be farcical but there was little pleasure in it for me. Enough to send me back to Wodehouse and Agatha Christie.
kindleandilluminate's review against another edition
2.0
Quite frankly, down a star for sheer, repulsive misogyny from beginning to end. A decent, if ridiculous, mystery puzzle, self-conscious but not awful writing, and characters that occasionally come close to having personalities. But I can’t ignore the fundamental sexism.