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A review by mezzosherri
Fundraising the Dead by Sheila Connolly
2.0
I don't like mysteries, but I decided to read this as an attempt to expand my limits (thank you PopSugar challenge!), in hopes that the autobiographical overlap--Philadelphia setting, protagonist working as a non-profit fundraiser--with my own life would make it more palatable.
Eh, not really. Some of the Philadelphia and "backstage at the museum" details were charming, but the plot did not sustain my interest. Of the two crimes featured, one had barely any mystery about it: the audience, the narrators, and half the characters all knew whodunnit super-quick, turning the book less into a mystery and more into a procedural "how are we gonna trap the villain?" yawnfest. The second crime, where the mystery of "whodunnit" was sustained, was also pretty much ignored, so when it gets solved at the end in deus ex machine style, that conclusion felt incredibly unearned and underwhelming.
Here's hoping the 2017 reading challenge doesn't have another mystery category on it....
Eh, not really. Some of the Philadelphia and "backstage at the museum" details were charming, but the plot did not sustain my interest. Of the two crimes featured, one had barely any mystery about it: the audience, the narrators, and half the characters all knew whodunnit super-quick, turning the book less into a mystery and more into a procedural "how are we gonna trap the villain?" yawnfest. The second crime, where the mystery of "whodunnit" was sustained, was also pretty much ignored, so when it gets solved at the end in deus ex machine style, that conclusion felt incredibly unearned and underwhelming.
Here's hoping the 2017 reading challenge doesn't have another mystery category on it....