Ooh an Agatha Christie style murder mystery set over Christmas for our December book club (#oneruleofbookclub), and chosen so easily as opposed to previous December book choosings it had to be a winner!
And it was for some of us who loved the post war, upper class England setting. It had all the hallmarks of a classic whodunit (the country house isolated by the Christmas bank holidays, the family gathering, the changing of a will) and was peppered with Christmas festivities (do you send a second present if you can't remember whether you sent a first or do you risk not sending any at all?)
The book however created a great divide between the group and every 9/10 was countered by a 5 or 6 as those in the against corner couldn’t warm to the self-centred, money grabbing characters who too many times had forgotten something of vital importance as 'they didn’t think it was relevant at the time'. It's a murder investigation why would a car driving away from the scene of the crime moments after it happened be relevant? Others struggled with too many characters and the authors labouring over points that didn’t really move the plot along (who closed what door leading to what room when).
It was interesting that those who read the physical book as opposed to reading it on a Kindle thought the above points slightly less of an issue as the book contained a note of all characters and a map of the ground floor of the house which greatly helped who the second daughter was married to and whether you could access the kitchen from the study.
The ending was a bit of a let-down, I didn’t think the final scenes including the big reveal were tense enough for a classic whodunit and I also thought the Inspector wasn’t a strong enough character. So often these murder mysteries have a strong lead (yes I'm thinking Poirot but there are others) and Halstock just wasn’t one of them.
Overall we all thought it better than last years offering (A Gift From Bob) but only just. 5/6 out of ten
We were divided in opinion this month and next month we will be even further as we review two separate books. Half will be reading Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, the other will be reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Which one will you choose?
Question of the month - what's your favourite whodunit?
And it was for some of us who loved the post war, upper class England setting. It had all the hallmarks of a classic whodunit (the country house isolated by the Christmas bank holidays, the family gathering, the changing of a will) and was peppered with Christmas festivities (do you send a second present if you can't remember whether you sent a first or do you risk not sending any at all?)
The book however created a great divide between the group and every 9/10 was countered by a 5 or 6 as those in the against corner couldn’t warm to the self-centred, money grabbing characters who too many times had forgotten something of vital importance as 'they didn’t think it was relevant at the time'. It's a murder investigation why would a car driving away from the scene of the crime moments after it happened be relevant? Others struggled with too many characters and the authors labouring over points that didn’t really move the plot along (who closed what door leading to what room when).
It was interesting that those who read the physical book as opposed to reading it on a Kindle thought the above points slightly less of an issue as the book contained a note of all characters and a map of the ground floor of the house which greatly helped who the second daughter was married to and whether you could access the kitchen from the study.
The ending was a bit of a let-down, I didn’t think the final scenes including the big reveal were tense enough for a classic whodunit and I also thought the Inspector wasn’t a strong enough character. So often these murder mysteries have a strong lead (yes I'm thinking Poirot but there are others) and Halstock just wasn’t one of them.
Overall we all thought it better than last years offering (A Gift From Bob) but only just. 5/6 out of ten
We were divided in opinion this month and next month we will be even further as we review two separate books. Half will be reading Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, the other will be reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Which one will you choose?
Question of the month - what's your favourite whodunit?
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