I always feel torn about books like this one. There are so many flaws, and yet, I still sorta enjoyed it. The main character, Lo, is a travel journalist who is setting out on the maiden voyage of a luxury yacht, headed to view the Northern Lights in Scandinavia. Days before leaving on the trip, her apartment is burgled while she is home, she has a huge fight with her boyfriend, and is generally on edge. The first night on the boat, she hears a […]
Like hope, stupid also floats.
Quite possibly the stupidest, most aggravating character in recent memory blunders her way through a mystery like an amateur Inspector Clouseau. It’s staggering how many poor decisions our hero Laura “Lo” Blacklock makes on a minute to minute basis. I had to keep checking that the author wasn’t actually a man writing under a woman’s pseudonym because this is one of the most misogynistic books I’ve read in some time. Sample dialogue: “I groaned at my own stupidity…” “Why didn’t I listen to…” “How could […]
Impending Doom
The fifth book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, The Brutal Telling is a murder mystery that takes place in the small town of Three Pines, where a man no one seems to recognize has turned up dead in the local cafe. The Brutal Telling has all the hallmarks of the series: an outsider is murdered, the peace of Three Pines is shattered, Inspector Gamache bestows his beatific smile on those who deserve it and saves the day. But for reasons unrelated to the […]
This is book eight; time to stop wanting this series to be something it’s not.
This was back on form after the disappointment of the last one. This series still isn’t perfect for me, but I find it really comforting and enjoyable anyway. I think I just need to let this series be itself and stop wanting it to be what it’s not. The mysteries and plot twists are always going to be predictable. Flavia is always going to pursue random avenues of inquiry that somehow magically lead her to answers. There is probably always going to be a misbalance between the mystery […]
I hate myself a bit for getting sucked into this one….
Ok…after wanting to throw book #1 across the room multiple times, this was a bit of an improvement. It is not so much a sequel, as it is a spinoff, which was interesting. It didn’t resolve any of my questions from book 1, but at least I didn’t have to deal with the biggest asshole character ever written anymore. The premise in this book is so unbelievable that I rolled my eyes more than once, because, COME ON. Our detective is called to a murder […]
I WANT TO PUNCH THE ENDING OF THIS BOOK IN THE TEETH.
Oh sweet mother, did this book ever frustrate me. On one hand, the premise is interesting – a girl shows up murdered in a forest; the lead detective on the case was involved in the suspicious disappearance of two of his friends when he was a child – in the exact same forest. Dun dun duuuunnnnn…. Who killed this girl? What happened to his friends all those years ago? Are the two cases related? 608 PAGES LATER AND ONLY ONE OF THOSE QUESTIONS WAS ANSWERED. […]
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