I currently have 81 reviews in "the can" so I'm going to have to post more than one a week unless I want to be talking about my 2024 books in March of 2025. Here's the first of the extra reviews.
Another Brother Cadfael Mystery this week. Well, it has been several weeks now since the last one. All I have to do is go to the book shelf to pick out the next one. So when I've nothing else on hand I do.
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 Rose Rent by Ellis Peters A-
In this mystery, the 13th Brother Cadfael Mystery, we have a grief stricken young widow who donated the use of her house to the Abby for the rent of one white rose from its garden every year. She comes from a wealthy craftsman family, and the house is of some value. As a result, she had many suitors, young and old, who would not only want to win her - but reclaim the house as well. Which could be done if the rose was not delivered on the specified day...
Some of those suitors may be willing to go far beyond asking her for her hand in marriage.
This is the 13th book in the series, and I've gone on and on about them, so if I haven't convinced you to give the series a try by now, well, you probably aren't interested in this book. And if you are reading them, I won't spoil this book for you, hence the short review. Still, if I care to play the critic...
This story was quite up to standard. However, it earned its "-" because, as in at least one other story in this series, I am not convinced that the culprit would have had enough of a motive do what they did. And thus, the mystery element of the story is not as convincing as some of the other ones in the series. Now this is just my opinion as a writer, and as a lukewarm mystery reader. It doesn't bother me too much, since I read these books more for spending time with the characters, and their historic flavor, not for the mystery. As far as I'm concerned, they were written as mysteries for marketing purposes only.
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