A great little mystery with wonderfully motivated and developed characters. Set on Martha's vineyard, the harbor master's assistant's grandma hears someone being murdered. Thus begins a good who-dunnit set against a faint backdrop of visiting POTUS and a island swarming with FEDS; there's an assortment of surly teenagers, a platoon of caricatures of New England fishermen, a retired NYPD cop, a mysterious computer expert, some hard-working stereotypical assertive females, a second murder and whoa - a third??? The grandma, Victoria, the amateur sleuth is old and wise enough to know when to butt in and when to back off. Unlike some of the other amateurs featured in some current mystery series, she's not about to do anything stupid, and still manages to help.
NO SPOILERS....the plot and characters were well enough developed that the audio got me through several hours of rigorous gardening. HOWEVER, as an audio, it has a serious flaw. The book is set in New England - not OLD ENGLAND. With Davina Porter as the narrator, you must disassociate from Martha's Vineyard because her very high class English accent really gets in the way. I really like her narrations...and listen to them whenever I see them, but her voice doesn't work for this setting. It's even worse when she uses various English accents for the dock workers. I doubt seriously if they came from Scotland, or Cornwall, etc. Truly disappointing in an otherwise acceptable book. If you like cozies with a little zip, you'll like this one.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Review: Deadly Nightshade
A great little mystery with wonderfully motivated and developed characters. Set on Martha's vineyard, the harbor master's assistant's grandma hears someone being murdered. Thus begins a good who-dunnit set against a faint backdrop of visiting POTUS and a island swarming with FEDS; there's an assortment of surly teenagers, a platoon of caricatures of New England fishermen, a retired NYPD cop, a mysterious computer expert, some hard-working stereotypical assertive females, a second murder and whoa - a third??? The grandma, Victoria, the amateur sleuth is old and wise enough to know when to butt in and when to back off. Unlike some of the other amateurs featured in some current mystery series, she's not about to do anything stupid, and still manages to help.
NO SPOILERS....the plot and characters were well enough developed that the audio got me through several hours of rigorous gardening. HOWEVER, as an audio, it has a serious flaw. The book is set in New England - not OLD ENGLAND. With Davina Porter as the narrator, you must disassociate from Martha's Vineyard because her very high class English accent really gets in the way. I really like her narrations...and listen to them whenever I see them, but her voice doesn't work for this setting. It's even worse when she uses various English accents for the dock workers. I doubt seriously if they came from Scotland, or Cornwall, etc. Truly disappointing in an otherwise acceptable book. If you like cozies with a little zip, you'll like this one.
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