Thursday, 13 January 2022

At Last - A Finished Book!

 


This is the current book for Saturday Slaughters, which we should be discussing  this Saturday coming. The meeting has been postponed for a week in the hope that current Scottish guidelines about indoor gatherings (currently limited to people from three households) will be changed, although I'm not holding my breath. 

I'm quite conflicted about this one. At first I was put off, partly by some bits of clumsy writing, partly by some box ticking to signify how what we used to call 'right on' the writer is, and partly because the protagonist, a mortuary technician, talks to the dead people in her care and sometimes gets talked back to. Some people are fine with supernatural elements mixed with their crime fiction, I'm not. 

But then I got drawn into the story, which was very good and I have to say the writer was very good at misdirection even with a very limited cast of characters. 

And then I got to the end section and the denouement was such a cop-out that I felt cheated. Not over the identity of the killer but the mechanics of how they were caught. 

Even so, if you're a fan of crime fiction I'd say it's worth a look. 

Elsewhere I am making good progress with the latest Poster book; that said, it's not one book but three and although I am almost through the second one I doubt I'll go straight on to number three. 



2 comments:

  1. Aha! I got the audiobook of this for free (can’t remember why), and I find myself agreeing with you. I thought she could have slung out the supernatural element altogether, and it took me a while to get into it. Then I really enjoyed it - until the end, which made me furious.

    I have to say, I’ve read worse. I’ve also stopped reading worse partway through, and nearly did with this, but I’m glad I persevered. She needs a firm editor, though.

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    1. So glad it's not just me. I am trying to let minor things go because I have been accused of being hyper picky, but the end mcguffin thing was a shocker.it will be interesting to see what the others in the Sat Slaughters make of it.

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