Wednesday 27 July 2016

My reading rate has slowed down recently since there's been a variety of things competing with reading for leisure time but I have managed to read some very different novels during the last couple of weeks.

Here's my thoughts on a book by a fellow Crooked Cat author- Angela Wren who featured on this blog a few weeks ago. Her mystery novel is called Messandrierre and is set in rural France.

Messandrierre by Angela Wren 

Who did what and when? There’s plenty for Jacques Foret to find out in this story that’s a nice cosy / police mystery. There are various interlinked threads in the story and sufficient clues to make it reasonably easy to work out who has done what and why - the dates on the timeline good indicators for this, though the insertions of these are slightly confusing at first.   
I’d like to think that a policeman’s job in rural France wouldn’t normally be so interspersed with disappearances which turn out to have deadly consequences but the situation does make the day a bit busier and a lot more interesting for Gendarme Foret. Amusing interludes and minor dramas of domestic situations in the rural setting are dealt with by Jacques in a competent and sympathetic manner though the reader can tell that this aspect of his job at the beginning of the novel isn’t really satisfying him. A good aspect of these daily dealings is that it allows the author to introduce a neat range of secondary characters for Jacques to interact with. However, investigation is much more appealing to him yet he’s not an intense and driven cop.

Beth has previously had some emotional traumas to deal with, and new shocks to contend which seem even worse, yet I’m afraid I didn’t really empathise with her. She initially comes across to me as very selfish, though that’s less evident towards the end. The romantic element adds a bit of tension as the story progresses and works towards a happier conclusion.

This was quite an engrossing read! I recommend it to the lover of cosy 'whodunits'.

You can get a copy of it:



Slainthe!

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