Really enjoyed this murder mystery - after all it was set in an area I know well (albeit 90 years later!). ( )

The nicest way you could describe this book is "competent". The mystery itself is technically sound but he has a tin ear for dialogue writing and his characters barely qualify as such - probably the most well depicted characters are the ones which are merely stereotypes! The main character is a complete cipher and most of the main players have at best a sentence of description. Most action and dialogue is statement of facts with some minimal generic embellishment, which is probably for the best because the times he attempts more it's very clumsy. It felt like the way a child writes. The mystery is technically fine but I feel any experienced mystery reader would have guessed the key plot point the main character only works out at the very end within the first 10 pages - I'm oblivious and still spent the last quarter being annoyed with how much of a dingus the police guy was being. a faked death - they just assumed a random skeleton was a missing guy The ending just leaves you feeling like "oh right, fair enough". From what i understand his geographical descriptions are highly accurate (he apologises at one point in a footnote for a slight simplification) which could be interesting but it just means he gives tons of place names and locations it's impossible to keep track of, even with regular references to the map (which doesn't show a lot of important detail because it has to fit in the entire wide area he talks about!)

overall it's not something i hated but i can't think of any reason you'd want to read it and I'll probably forget about it totally soon enough ( )

Enjoyed this one a great deal: the setting is interesting, the red herrings are plentiful, and there's a fair bit of good humor. ( )

geography lesson thrown in for free ( )

I enjoyed this classic British mystery, even though I had an inkling of the crime's solution for most of the book. There were some interesting twists and turns, and I appreciated the thorough exploration of every line of inquiry. I was a bit disappointed with the treatment of female characters, though I imagine much of that can be chalked up to the time period in which it was written. Still, it's surprising for a main character's spouse to go unnamed for the duration of a novel, especially when his son is referred to by name on several occasions.

If you enjoy classic British mysteries, you'll most likely enjoy this one, too.

Note: I received a digital galley of this book through NetGalley. ( )