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.
Untrue till Death by Graham Brack A
I gave the first book in this series, Death In Deft, a B grade, and as you may've noticed this one earned an A, which I believe is my first A grade book of the year. In my opinion Mr Brack stepped up his game in this time around.
How so, you ask? By giving his minister/priest lecturer in moral philosophy more of an attitude; kindly, yet with a keen eye and a sarcastic sense of humor. As you no doubt know, I enjoy clever and humorous writing, and I really enjoyed this story for the humor he brought to the story. Now, as I have noted before, just setting a story in the past, and describing the landscape does not necessarily give the story the feel of the past. The use of language is an important element in recreating an impression of a past era. Patrick O'Brian does it so well, as does Ellis Peters. Both still manage to make their writing feel something of the time the story is set in, while still being very readable for modern readers. In these books, while Brack does a good job of recreating the landscape and customs of Holland in 1670's, he hasn't attempted to write the character and story in a way that evokes the historical period. His first person narrator, Master Mercurius has a very modern viewpoint for a Calvinist minister/Catholic priest of that era, and beyond his use of titles and customs, he writes in a rather breezy, modern style, with, as I said, a lot of humorous observations and asides. To be consistent, I should deduct points for this, but I'm anything but consistent. Give me clever, witty writing and I'll overlook a lot of nitpicks. And he does make the point in his historical notes, that not everyone of the time thinks like most people at any point in history, so it's perfectly realistic to imagine his character having a more tolerant view of people, life, and morality than your typical 17th century Calvinist. Fair enough.
Writing aside, what is the story about? This time around we meet William lll of Orange, who has recently come into power in the Netherlands after defeating a French invasion. Nevertheless his position is far from secure. At least he feels it is, since he is acting very much like a king in a country that was something of a republic prior to his succession to the role of something like protector of the republic. I haven't delved too deeply into the background history, but he tends to overstep his still iffy position as the head of the government and his enemies within the country are still active. So, Willian, having heard of Mercurius's success in solving the mystery of the three missing girls, summons him and asks (read; commands) him to interview a fellow scholar in a different city to access his usefulness. This scholar has been keeping an eye on the sentiments of the populace and potential trouble makers for William in that city, but he is old, infirmed, and William is looking to find his eventual replacement. In the meantime the unpleasant secretary of the Rector of the University where Mercurius teaches at is found dead... Murdered, in fact. And there seem to be some sort of connection between the murder to William and to Mercurius's mission for William.
As with all mysteries, I really can't get into too many details without spoilers. All I will say is that these books are not your typical who-done-it stories. I don't think you can expect to discover the mysteries on your own, being both unfamiliar with the settings, and the fact that Mercurius keeps some of his insights to himself. So, as the reader, you're along for the ride. The good thing about the story, is that it's a very entertaining ride.
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