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A review by krikketgirl
Goodbye, Ms. Chips by Dorothy Cannell
3.0
As a mystery, I would give it 2 stars, but I enjoyed it enough despite its lackluster mystery that I bumped it up to three. This is primarily fluff and primarily about relationships, with the mystery thrown in as a skeleton on which to hang the body of the story.
For me, an effective mystery should have a detective who is actually trying to solve the mystery; it should be fair play (the clues should be obvious enough that one could solve it oneself, but not so obvious that it's a foregone conclusion), and the mystery should be solved satisfactorily and wrapped up plausibly. My complaint in this story is that--while there is a detective, and she died solve the mystery, it's done so at the last minute and with vague references back to this or that happening. Since the story was told in first person, it felt unfair: the narrator told us some of her thoughts, but not the ones pertinent to the resolution?
All this said, I will probably read another Dorothy Cannell book in future, because the writing itself was fun.
For me, an effective mystery should have a detective who is actually trying to solve the mystery; it should be fair play (the clues should be obvious enough that one could solve it oneself, but not so obvious that it's a foregone conclusion), and the mystery should be solved satisfactorily and wrapped up plausibly. My complaint in this story is that--while there is a detective, and she died solve the mystery, it's done so at the last minute and with vague references back to this or that happening. Since the story was told in first person, it felt unfair: the narrator told us some of her thoughts, but not the ones pertinent to the resolution?
All this said, I will probably read another Dorothy Cannell book in future, because the writing itself was fun.