Where the Crime Gets Solved on Its Own

Paragon Walk by Anne Perry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Third book in the series. I liked it, but I wanted it to be better. Almost gave it a 3--3.5 is probably the closest score, the way I see it. But it costs nothing to round it up.

The series so far has followed this pattern: there's a crime (murder or murders) on a somewhat exclusive street that is connected in some way to the main character, Charlotte. (In the first novel, she marries the police detective, Mr. Pitt, and after that they work out murder mysteries together. Sort of.) Pitt interviews people on the street, getting alibis for the upper class people nearby as well as their servants. There's an expectation that the criminal lives among them, in one of six or seven or eight homes all close to one another. And that turns out to be true.

I was hoping that, by this third story, the inspector would be more impressive. He just asks questions and waits for something to come up. There is very little Sherlockian about him. Charlotte gets more involved, gathering intel in a sneaky way, usually, but she still doesn't get far. It still doesn't feel like they're actively solving mysteries, and that's why I am reluctant to give a more favorable review or rating. It feels like they're just hanging out long enough for the killer (or whatever) to reveal himself or herself.

That said, it's a fun read, in its way. There are terrible events, obviously, but it has a sort of novel-of-manners feel that is familiar and enjoyable. It's almost more than I can do to keep a bunch of minor characters straight, but that's exactly how these novels are, just like in Agatha Christie or any other mystery writer of that sort. It's meant to read like a puzzle, and the reader is responsible for keeping stuff straight. I'm still working on that.

I wrote and deleted a whole paragraph discussing my feelings about the way SA was treated in this book, and I'm gonna skip that. Let me just say that the tone is not as good as it could be, even when considering the Victorian setting and the era when the author was writing.

The story move pretty quickly and the ending was both interesting and satisfying. It's a good mystery and a decent thriller.

Generally recommended for mystery readers, with the obvious exceptions.

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Where It's Darker Than You Think

What Cannot Be Said by C.S. Harris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is another outstanding entry in an amazing series. I love the characters and their arcs, the language, the action, and the pacing of the story, and I'm in awe of the research and world-building. I read books in small daily chunks (multiple books, a little at at time) and it's very hard not to just consume these novels. Every page invites you to keep going.

Not that the subject matter is light. It's informative and engaging and thought-provoking, but it's not light. The murders at the center of this story are disturbing, and the truth, when it comes out, is just the worst.

It's also very real.

It sounds like there are plans for more books in the series, and I'm totally ready for that. I seldom buy new hardcovers, or pre-order anything, but I'll make an exception for these all day long.

Highly recommended.

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Where Lord Byron Is the Suspect

Riot Most Uncouth: A Lord Byron Mystery by Daniel Friedman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. My 5-star rating is way over the average, which sits right at 3.

I'm shocked at that result. I thought this was a really great novel. (I see a bunch of disgruntled Byron stans gave this a 1. But the most common score was a 5. I get it now.)

At the beginning, I almost DNF'd the book. Lord Byron is the main character, and as most people know, he was kind of a jerk. Mad, bad, and dangerous to know. Probably worse than that. And here, he is portrayed as an absolute malignant narcissist--which he might or might not have been. The Byron in the novel is a horrible man whose only virtue (besides being a good writer, I suppose) is that he generally is honest about himself, not pretending, for example, when he's seducing a woman, that he will ever love her or take care of her or anything noble. Most of the time, there is no sign of virtue, though. He is an asshole and uses his status as a club to injure people that mostly don't deserve his cruelty.

I don't like books with characters I have no sympathy for. That's my biggest turnoff in reading and in movies. Somehow, though, he became, by degrees, more sympathetic to me, and I started to care about him. Then I got into the story. (A similar example: Al Swearengen, in Deadwood, is a dangerous, callous, homocidal prick, but he's also smart and funny and strangely compelling. I should hate to watch him, but I don't.) Anyway, I can't totally explain why I found Byron sympathetic after all, except I guess he's also really smart, and when he's horrible to bad people it is pretty fun.

This is a mystery novel, which is one of my favorite things, and it has all the usual bits: a crime, some suspects, the gathering of clues, additional crimes, danger for the MC, and so on, but it also seems bigger than that. In part, that's because we get a lot of flashback scenes with Byron's childhood, especially revolving around his father, and the story is framed as a much older Byron revisiting the story from his university days. In terms of time, the novel is wider than the mystery, but thematically it's wide, too, touching on mental health and family relationships and the privileges of nobility, and so on, and feels in some ways like a mini-biography. I thought it worked.

There is a satisfying conclusion to the story, and though the older Byron narrating the last chapter casts doubt on some of the exact details of the mystery's end, it feels like it doesn't really matter.

Yes, he's a terrible guy, so I totally understand those who couldn't keep reading. And the mystery is bloody and violent, so that might spoil it for others. But from a certain perspective, there's a lot to laugh at here, not to mention a wild mystery to solve, and I really enjoyed reading it.

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Where Aiden Has a Tough Day

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a brilliant concept, and much of it is carried off well, but there is so much weight dragging it down that I just barely give it the nod between "liked a little" and "disliked a little."

The writing is great; there are many beautiful lines filled with excellent imagery and expressive figurative language that really works. I often find such language overdone, as if the author is just trying too damn hard, but I didn't feel that way here. I like the way this author puts together sentences and paragraphs.

I'm also impressed with the way the author has taken the premise--a man is reawakened each day in the body and mind of another person--and followed it to some logical extremes. For example, the MC is at the beginning both very confused and only lightly influenced by the personality and memories of the person he is inhabiting. As the days continue, or as the repeated day plays out again, he is less confused but increasingly lost in the personalities he is shoved into. That change happens over time, and it is nicely meted out in bits all through the novel.

However, the plot is a thousand-piece puzzle that the reader is trying to assemble in their head. The complexities of a typical murder mystery, learning the various characters' names and histories and motivations and movements, is usually hard enough, but here we have movement back and forward through time, meaning the question of who knows what or who is doing what has to be joined to the question of "what time is it?" Then, we also have a mystery from a generation earlier (which murder mysteries often have), plus the mysteries of who set up the strange Groundhog Day conditions of the story and the reason they did it. It's like Agatha Christie through a funhouse mirror.

In a way, the author pulled it off, but the demands it makes on the reader to keep things straight, to remember that this event must occur so that this other event, which we observed chapters earlier but will actually happen hours later, will also occur, though we don't know why either is necessary... I found it exhausting.

I find myself in the unfortunate position of identifying with Amadeus's Emperor who advised the composer that his opera just had too many notes.

Final peeve--I understand well enough what happened in the story, how it ended, but I don't understand what happened after the book. The question is not just where they ended up, but when. Disappointed I didn't get that answered.

Recommended for those who really like puzzle mysteries. I further recommend you keep a spreadsheet open for your notes.

Or you can just let it roll over you like I did and simply read it to the end, hoping it all makes sense.


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Where Sebastian Faces Some Real Darkness

Where the Dead Lie by C.S. Harris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love this whole series, and this might be my favorite out of the 12 I've read. Top 2 or 3 for sure--though that's a tough call.

But it's also very hard to read.

I would never say that this very well-written series is exactly "cozy." Even though I usually enjoy reading these books before going to sleep (which is, to me, one indication) there are many other series that fit that label better. But it's also usually not too brutal (bearing in mind that there are deaths in every one). So it's not Murder She Wrote--far from it--but it's not Criminal Minds, either. However, this particular book could have been a Criminal Minds episode, complete with serial killer and genuine suspense. It's tough in spots. The murderer abducts children, tortures them, and then kills them. It's fiction, but it's real, you know? Such things happen. And it's horrible to face it and think about it.

Anyway, even though I had to quit watching Criminal Minds at some point because I couldn't take the misery portrayed in the stories, this is still very readable, and I'm trying to work out why I felt that way. Good people are working to save the kids, and despite the darkness there's a ribbon of hope spooling out through the whole story. I feel like the author balanced the difficulty of the subject matter with the grit, direct action, commitment, anger, and bravery we need as a reader to follow along. It's well done, and though it has a complex conclusion, I found the ending satisfying, and I'm eager to look at the next one.

Just as an aside: there's some discussion of the writings of the Marquis de Sade here, and at first I thought it was going to be simple and moralistic (which woulda been totally okay in this context, though not terribly edifying), but it ended up being surprisingly nuanced. I learned some stuff. So that was cool.

I think there are at least 3 stories waiting on the edges of this one: 1) Dr. Gibson needs to get off drugs; 2) One unexpected death was surely not due to natural causes, and I think I know who did it; and 3) Sebastian's niece is gonna need help with her horrible husband.

This is also my wish list for stuff to be solved in the next book. However, the author has her own way of timing things, and since everything so far has been very well done, I'll just wait to see how she manages it.

Recommended.

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Where Charlotte Holmes Helps Change Minds

Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the fifth book in a very entertaining series.

Charlotte Holmes, who pretends to have a brother named Sherlock who she works with, is one of the best creations of popular literature. She's a brilliant, independent, free-thinker who knows what she wants and isn't abashed by her physical nature--whether it's desiring the attentions of Lord Ingram, wearing shocking clothes, or wanting more cake. Watching the people around her, especially the men, coming to terms with the world the way she sees it is really interesting.

An inspector acquaintance is the main suspect in a pair of murders here, and it's Charlotte's job (with some help) to prove he didn't do it. The man's wife, Mrs. Treadles, has inherited a manufacturing business, and her dealings with the uncooperative men there is a cool subplot that has bearing on the main plot. (Mr. Treadles, the inspector, was not too keen on his wife taking over the work at the business, either, but we see him coming around, in much the same way that people who know Charlotte start to see her as a capable person, not just a "woman" in the limited sense of the time.) The solution of the mystery includes a lot of digging into people's lives, but one of Charlotte's delightful quirks is how she is entirely unbothered by the peccadilloes and sensitive personal details that so captivated society at that time.

This is a fun mystery as well as a pleasant time spent with a number of terrific characters. Highly recommended for Sherlock fans and historical mystery fans.

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Where Rosalind Is Made of Stern Stuff

A Useful Woman by Darcie Wilde
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had never heard of this series until I ran onto it the other day. It has lots of the things I really love--Regency setting, historical mystery, Jane Austen vibes--and I hoped it wouldn't let me down.

It didn't. I thought it was great.

The writing feels very confident, very self-assured, and though we experience with the main character the difficulties of dealing with life's harsh realities, there is still a lot of hope in the story and in Rosalind. She had a lot of setbacks through no fault of her own, but she's treading water at least, and maybe doing a bit better than that. I like that she is recognized as being good at many things, enough that she's sought after by society people despite living on the edge of disgrace. And I like how she holds her own when facing those glowering and posturing people who want to overawe her and take advantage of her. No crumbling. No weeping. No apologies.

I like her. She's a good character.

I also like Honoria, who is salty but fun. And the Bow Street runner character is unusually round, full of possibilities for future novels. I'm looking forward to seeing some of that.

The plot is soooo Regency it's almost funny, but it totally works. In one way or another, everyone in the story is trying to stay as close to the top of society as they can get, and it makes some of them do foolish things.

I really like a good mystery, but it struck me that it could almost have worked just as a novel of manners without the tragic events at Almack's. The mystery just makes it that much more fun to read.

I already have the second book on hand, which is good, because I'm eager to see more.

Recommended for Austen people (most of them) and every Regency mystery type.

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Where I Marvel at the Author's Cleverness

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I should stop being surprised at how modern Agatha Christie seems. I thought 80 years or so would separate us more than it does. Maybe she was leaning forward a bit. That's how it seems to me.

This is a well constructed novel and brilliantly constructed mystery. That's how she does it. Everyone is a suspect, everyone could have done it, but no matter how you look at it, it's never done quite the way you guess. And I had a ton of guesses! She fits the pieces together like a 3-D puzzle, and when you're done you have to just applaud.

Good fun--despite the tragic circumstances and all. But you know it's a murder mystery when you open it, so that's cool.

All the stars.



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Character-Driven Fantasy Murder Mystery

A Murder of Mages by Marshall Ryan Maresca
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book. Interesting characters, engaging murder mystery, cool setting--all good.

This is a brisk read with lots of action, though we also get to know the characters quite a bit. Satrine cons her way into an inspector job because she has to take care of her kids after her husband is disable and needs constant care. Part of her story is the tension between her and her oldest daughter as they try to struggle through hard times. Satrine's partner is Minox, an inspector from a big family of constables. He has the characteristics of someone on the spectrum, and though he's unorthodox he is a focused inspector. He isn't well understood at work, though, and it's only a bit better for him at home. Besides that, he's a mage unallied with any of the normal circles, which makes certain people not trust him. His relationships at work and at home--including a brother who appears to be descending into schizophrenia--are complex and interesting.

The plot involves the murder of mages--obvious from the title--and though this is a fantasy, the mystery is effective and satisfying. The story is grounded in personalities which carries it, IMO.

I found the novel fun and engaging, easy to pick up and get into again (as I rotate between a handful of books) and I'm eager to read others in the series.

Recommended.

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