Book dump

[failte_aoife]

Mostly book I read ages ago but always forgot to write up because I didn't have terribly much to say about them. Like more posh murder:

John Rowland - Calamity in Kent

Tbh I couldn't say anything that's better than this Goodreads review:I have a seriously hard time suspending disbelief for a mystery novel whose plot boils down to "Scotland Yard

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Cluff can finally arrest him and doesn't have to worry about the lack of proof against the wife!

Huh. Does the book present, like, a moral take on this outcome, or? I'm trying to figure out how one is supposed to feel about that resolution...

an extremely dull sex scene between the Queen and her wife (btw they also have a child that is biologically theirs but nobody is trans...)

...ok then. XP

The plot is the pizza and the worldbuilding is the caviar. Im happy to see I'm not alone in reaching for weird food analogies when it comes to talking about books! But in fact I understand perfectly what you mean with that. And I could probably see that sort of mix working if done deftly enough -- I'm pretty sure I've read some things where the plot was a vehicle for worldbuilding and I was perfectly cool with that -- but probably the worldbuilding has to be exceptionally well done, and it would help if something else -- the characters or the prose or SOMETHING -- are also amazing, which it doesn't sound like was the case here. (Maybe the

[failte_aoife]

Huh. Does the book present, like, a moral take on this outcome, or? I'm trying to figure out how one is supposed to feel about that resolution...
Not really...it's just a middle book from a series that - if the introduction is to be believed - was incredibly popular in the 30s & 40s and it's all just One Way To Solve A Crime

I'm pretty sure I've read some things where the plot was a vehicle for worldbuilding and I was perfectly cool with thatYes...I mean I've really enjoyed stuff like Gates of the world which has a variety of sub-plots and half of them boil down to 'Get from A to B' and one is a character fighting embezzlement and child labour and it's all set in a very weird world and it was great...and I think Sunkissed Feathers could have been at least good fun if the author had taken some of the energy she used for coming up with 3251 all-new animals into developing a plot that was slightly fancier but the way it was just left me with a feeling of vague dissapointment...just like the Rosetta Stein & co. As novel-lengths books

[ikel89]

I recently tried retelling the Catherine Howard book (based solely on your reviews) and failed at the stage where I tried to compare it to Da Vinci code, because I couldn't remember the name of this masterpiece. Because my familiarity with DB (the writer, not the german railroads operator, despite similar levels of ominousness) begins and ends with a very distracted cinema viewing of the movie, I tried to reference the book as "the one where Paul Bettany whips himself naked and they talk about pictures with Jesus". Apologies for derailing my listener from Catherine Howard's fate so unexpectedly.

Otherwise I'd like to inform you that due to your snarky exasperation I now know more about the trends in murder mystery since I ever did after turning 14. Back then it was all about the method, and now it seems it's all about "fuck you reader :'D because I told you so".

[failte_aoife]

the writer, not the german railroads operator, despite similar levels of ominousness

If our DB had pictures of a naked Paul Bettany I might like them more.

"fuck you reader :'D because I told you so"
Accurate description is accurate