I came across this week's book while browsing the library's catalog for historical fiction ebooks. It's another Victorian era mystery set in London. Let's see how this one fares.
My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.
Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below. The Spy in the House by Y S Lee B
I'm going to be honest right up front. This is a penny dreadful novel with a loosey-goosey premise and a rather ramshackle plot, to say the least. The motivations of most of the characters are hard to take seriously, their actions stretch credibility. And yet, it is well written and features a pleasant, interesting main character with a subtle, but knowing sense of place and time. This is not surprising since the author has a PhD in Victorian literature and culture. As a result, I was able to overlook all the things that, in other hands, I would've, and previously have, criticized in past reviews. Thus I was able to enjoyed the book, hence its grade of B. Good writing and good characters go a long way with me.
As for the plot, this is the first book in a series of four, featuring Mary Quinn, who, as a child of 12 was caught stealing and sentence to be hung. Just before her execution she is whisked away to a school for girls where she is trained to make an independent living, and, become an agent for a detective agency run by the school's founders. The premise is that women are so overlooked and underrated in Victorian society, that they can be placed in situations where they could ferret out, without suspicion, the information that a male agent could not. Her first assignment is to act as a companion for the daughter of a family suspected of being smugglers and insurance frauds. As I said, the premise and plot are pretty loosey-goosey, but it clips along regardless.
I have complained in the past about contemporary historical fiction that likes to impress the reader with the author's skill at using for their research Wikipedia, by including all sorts of factoids dropped in here and there in the story. One of the things that elevated this story above the others I've read, was that the historical period was presented without resorting to overt info dumps. Except in one case. The story is set in the year 1858, and describes the how bad the river Thames smelled. This was part of the story's backdrop setting. I happened to have come across the fact that there was one year when the river's smell was so strong that it resulted in a massive rebuilding of the river and London's sewer system. I would've looked it up once I finished the book, but Lee felt the need to tell the reader a little about the Great Stink in a conversation. I was disappointed, but for the most part she was able to convey little facets of London life in 1858 without calling attention to the fact that she was doing so, unlike the other books of this period that I've read recently. So I turned a blind eye to this infraction.
So, the bottom line - an entertaining adventure story. Not much of a mystery, you can figure out the culprit pretty early on, and the "detecting" is pretty basic. Nothing clever. You're here for the characters, not the plot or mystery. If the library has the second volume, I'll order it up, which is more than I can say for the other Victorian London mysteries I've read.
No comments:
Post a Comment