The Rushworth Family Plot by Claudia Gray: Book Review

The Rushworth Family Plot by Claudia Gray
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Even amid the deepest and most sincere grief, there is often a strong curiosity about the contents of a will. Avarice can strike like a viper, even within otherwise benevolent hearts... And where the contents of a will are surprising, even shocking, the news of those contents will spread with remarkable speed.

Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney meet in London during The Season in The Rushworth Family Plot and have to solve yet another murder (or two), while also navigating social intricacies without set rules of etiquette, try to understand where they stand on moral issues, semi-plot to convince their parents they are a good match for each other, and more easily bask in each others' attentions.

Jonathan and Juliet continue to grow as detectives solving macabre murders, although quite a bit of the novel is centered on the moral issues Jane Austen's Mansfield Park addresses openly like infedility, and mentions offhand between the lines like slavery. Exploring means, motive and opportunity for the murders forces several characters to confront their morality, which was interesting to read, but seemed a bit unlikely considering the time period these novels are set in.

Though it is naturally difficult to completely capture the essences of someone else's characters, written a long time ago, Claudia Gray's not quite Austen-like writing brings across some of the characteristics we've come to know and expect. However, balancing this with the character arcs hinted at in Austen's novels and perhaps growth that might be expected in some of them given time, this series is starting to require a higher degree of suspension of disbelief of the various mentality vascillations seen in the continuing attempts to bring so many Austen characters together. The plot held for most of the novel, but some of the twists, especially at the end, to further the investigation as well as provide opportunity for more drama in the future seem far-fetched. On the whole, still a fun read, and I'm warily looking forward to the possible next book.

Jonathan sighed. He knew the rules of etiquette as well as any (and better than most), but he could not see the sense of any rule that made it impolite to keep to one’s own house and read one’s own books. Still, such rules had to be obeyed even— especially, it seemed— when they made no sense at all.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. The quotes included here are from the unpublished draft but provide a good sample of the writing.

🌟🌟1/2🌟
[Half a star for the premise and the whole book; Half a star for the characters and their growth; 1/4 star for the plot and themes explored; Half a star for the world-building; 3/4 star for the writing - 2 1/2 stars in total, rounded up to 3 stars.]

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A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett: Book Review

 

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Because you are a reasonably smart boy. I suspect you shall come to realize what many Iudexii eventually learn— that though the Legion defends our Empire, it falls to us to keep an Empire worth defending.”

Fiction is underestimated by many, but good fiction, even with elements of science fiction and fantasy can be thought provoking - and sometimes, or many times it is with people or situations in very different worlds that we can find things in common and patterns (yes, seeing patterns is a reference to this book) in the overarching themes. A Drop Of Corruption is primarily a mystery in the vein of Holmes and Watson, but at its heart a commentary on autocracies and the need for functional police systems. Ana and Din travel to another city that is in the midst of treaty negotiations with the Empire to solve yet another seemingly impossible murder and soon find that the reasons behind the murder are layered with the political systems and covert operations there.

The book fulfills its premise with a scintillating mystery that keeps the reader involved, with several seemingly impossible situations showcasing Ana's prowess and Din's capabilities. The intricate plot has many players, with political intrigue, bureaucratic procedures as well as cultural clashes, all while dealing with a Moriarty-esque antagonist. The writing is measured with fair mention of various clues that turn out to be relevant later and it is a joy to be able to deduce a few of the solutions/ character revelations ahead of the confirmation in the book!

But more than this, the book also prompts questions on governing systems, the importance of policing checks in any bereaucracy or city, country or empire and the dangers of autocratic management, even if not quite Moriarty-esque. This is beautifully reflected in Din's own thoughts, problems, arguments and career considerations. It was interesting to see Ana mentor Din in her own way, but what was really satisfactory was that they trust each other more now than when they started working together. The secondary characters are given due weight, but Ana and Din's character sketches and growth take the prime consideration.

And to note finally, the world-building! Robert Jackson Bennett reveals more questions than answers in this book (a bit more than the first). But the empire foundation, the various organisations, the magic (or bio-chemical) system, the cultures all take a backseat next to the elephant (or the leviathan, if you will) in the room! The world-building is still focused on the empire, the people and their advances with the bio-chemical manipulations of leviathan matter and though we see more exotic uses of these, the book reveals quite little of the leviathans themselves and their origins. But this curiosity and the hints of Ana's origin story are keeping me hooked for the next book in the series. A minor quibble with the writing is RJB's use of a few Indian languages to pepper phrases through the book in the non-empire language, and my word associations weren't quite the associations this world used it for, which was jarring.

Recommended for anyone who enjoys Holmes and Watson mysteries and fantasy mysteries with good world-building. Looking forward to more in this series!

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing group for an advanced copy of this book, all opinions are my own.

🌟🌟🌟🌟3/4🌟
[One star for the premise and the whole book; One star for the characters and their arcs; 3/4 star for the writing; One star for the world-building, One star for the plot and themes - 4 3/4 in total, rounded up to 5 stars.]

“This work can never satisfy, Din, for it can never finish. The dead cannot be restored. Vice and bribery will never be totally banished from the cantons. And the drop of corruption that lies within every society shall always persist. The duty of the Iudex is not to boldly vanquish it but to manage it. We keep the stain from spreading, yes, but it is never gone. Yet this job is perhaps the most important in all the Iyalets, for without it, well … The Empire would come to look much like Yarrow, where the powerful and the cruel prevail without check. And tell me—does that realm look capable of fighting off a leviathan?”

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The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Ann Older: Book Review

 

The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Ann Older
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

That is, I regret it now; but when I probe the gallimaufry of blurred memories from that night I can still feel the potency of the ungovernable impulse that demanded I place my palms on her bony shoulders, the elation of pouring my strength into the shove, of feeling her weight and solidity shocked backwards by my hand.

The third book in The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti series, The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses sees Pleiti flex her recently uncovered investigating skills by herself to help out her friend at another university, in the process acquiring a new respect for the Modernist stream of studies, making new friends and renewing old friendships, and solving the mystery with some good old fashioned skills; all while Pleiti and Mossa try to navigate their growing relationship, dealing with their insecurites and learning to work their way to each other.

This book is a great addition to the series in terms of both the world-building and the characters. We see more of the world Giant, as well as a bit of its history and prejudices. It's interesting, to say the least, but perhaps not surprising, to see the tensions that can arise in academia even in a futuristic space settlement society. The plot is slow at first - with the characters mostly reacting to events, but Pleiti steadily makes headway in trying to solve the mystery alone before Mossa joins her, very reminiscent of the plot in The Hound of the Baskervilles. How they each work towards solving the mystery and rationally finding the culprit is a good reflection of their individual temperaments.

Both Pleiti and Mossa grow as characters; Pleiti with her perception of academia and scholars, Mossa with her introspection on the kinds of cases she wants to take up. They also continue to explore their relationship after some angst and more open conversation, especially regarding mental health. While it was good to see them actually talk to each other about their feelings and expectations, the angst and insecurity felt a little off-key when looking at how their relationship grew in the previous two books.

A special note must be made of the author's incredible linguistic skills in envisioning a close knit society comprising people of multiple nationalities and cultures starting from scratch as a new society. It is truly refreshing to see this melding of languages and speech patterns (and food items too), seen even in the first two books (Book 2 review), as opposed to simply including some stereotypes bordering on (or invading) blatant racism and calling it representation. However, not knowing these languages don't really stop the flow as a lot can be gleaned from context. As a person who's interested in etymology and linguistics, I enjoyed tracing the various words with roots from different languages, and of course also looking up new foodstuffs. Gallimaufry, if you were wondering, means a confused jumble or medley of things - its origin is old French, but it is actually an English word (ref. Oxford dictionary).

This book, and series, is recommended to anyone who might enjoy a Holmes and Watson kind of mystery in a Sci-Fi world, with female lead characters and a sapphic romance.

The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti series:
Book 1: The Mimicking of Known Successes
Book 2: The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles

Thanks to NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group and the author Malka Ann Older for an ARC of the book, the review is entirely honest.

🌟🌟🌟🌟1/4🌟
[3/4 star for the premise and the whole book; 3/4 star for the characters and their growth; 3/4 star for the story and themes; One star for the world-building; One star for the writing - 4 1/4 stars in total, rounded down to 4 stars.]

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A Terribly Nasty Business: Book Review

 

A Terribly Nasty Business by Julia Seales
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Neighborhood Association of Gentlemen Sweetbriarians (NAGS) Presents: THE LONDON SEASON

The second Beatrice Steele book A Terribly Nasty Business follows her to London as she solves her investigative firm's first real case with partner Vivek Drake and navigates the London season. The book is as wacky as the first, with flying squirrels and nostalgic mentions of glowing frogs, but Julia Seales' witty humor also aids discussing the themes of freedom (lack of) and gender inequality in the Regency era.

The story arc had enough space for Beatrice's introspective growth, even amidst the humor, and the plot progression made for an easy light page turner. The strength of the book on the whole, as well as the series, is Seales' parodic writing and satirical world-building. Recommended to anyone looking for a light-hearted funny murder mystery.

I see the influence that a painting, a song, a performance, has on people’s hearts and minds. It can effect change. Topple the correct ways and order of society. Give power to those who have never had it...

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers Random House for an advanced copy, the review is entirely honest.

🌟🌟🌟1/4
[3/4 star for the premise and the whole book; 3/4 star for the writing; Half a star for the characters and their growth; Half a star for the world-building; 3/4 star for the story and themes - 3 1/4 stars in total, rounded down to an integer.]

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Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson; Book Review

 

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If murder mysteries have rules, so too do Christmas Specials, which the universe has kindly obliged here. You’ll find ahead Santa-fied clues aplenty, and don’t rule out characters having to dress up in silly costumes for some tangentially related plot reason, which I will satisfy in a minor turn as Rudolph. And of course, by the end of these things, the detective has to learn the true meaning of the word Christmas. So we’ll get there too.

A quick festive novella for Ernest Cunningham fans, Everone This Christmas Has a Secret manages to tangentially follow all the seasonal special rules in Stevenson's witty way, while still in keeping with the Golden Age mystery rules. Ernest is called to solve a seemingly impossible mystery just before Christmas and steps into a world of professional tricksters, each with their own secret.

The plot is captivating and true to the Ernest's word, the readers get enough clues along the way to try and piece the puzzle together. The story provides a pretty strong foundation on which to build everything else, though not all characters are sketched out solidly. I enjoyed Stevenson's witty writing and sense of humor in this one; the blatant references to Christmas have to be forgiven I suppose.

And for those wondering if any aspect of formatting plays a role here -
In keeping with an accidental theme— my first case involved a full stop, my second a comma—this may well be the first mystery ever solved by Comic Sans.

Thanks to NetGalley, Mariner publishing group and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

🌟🌟🌟🌟
[3/4 star for the premise and the whole book; One star for the story arc; Half a star for the characters; One star for the writing; Half a star for the world-building and description- 3 3/4 stars in total, rounded up to 4 stars.]


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And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie: Book Review

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had written this book because it was so difficult to do that the idea had fascinated me. Ten people had to die without it becoming ridiculous or the murderer being obvious. I wrote the book after a tremendous amount of planning, and I was pleased with what I had made of it. It was clear, straightforward, baffling, and yet had a perfectly reasonable explanation; in fact it had to have an epilogue in order to explain it. It was well received and reviewed, but the person who was really pleased with it was myself, for I knew better than any critic how difficult it had been.

- Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None

If I had to recommend one book by Agatha Christie to anyone, or even just one mystery, it would be And Then There Were None. With such a perfect locked room (island) premise, and with her brilliant execution of the whole story, Christie really had every reason to be pleased and proud of this book! And for the world to still think of her as the queen of mystery.

What's left to say?
Christie had a good psychological grasp of her ten well-sketched characters, shown as brief glimpses into their trains of thought. Apart from the prevalent suspense and suspicion, the paranoia that can set in when they realize they're in danger, Christie does a great job showing the devolvement of the rules of society and position over the course of the book. As a modern day reader, I was actually a bit surprised how many 'rules' were actually stuck to - but this is one of the reasons I like reading Christie and other writers of her time, we can actually see a good representation of her time and the society then.

The writing is simply masterful - we see everything of essence and more, brought across to the reader in less than 300 pages! The best way to enjoy this book and the story arc is to go in blind if possible, as I did. The epilogue explains the mystery, along with the very few clues scattered through the book. But the book itself is a perfect locked room mystery.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

[One star for the premise and the whole book; One star for the story arc; One star for the characters; One star for the writing; One star for the world-building and description - Five stars in total].

Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson: Book Review

 

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“Thank God we’re (crime writers) just inventing it! If one of the six of us was to die right now, you’d have five suspects who all know how to get away with murder.”

The premise of Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson is exactly that - one of the authors at a writer's festival happening on a train is murdered and everyone else on the train is a suspect, including all the other writers who've done their research on how to get away with murder. Ernest Cunningham, one of the invitees for his book Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, tries to solve the mystery by banking on the individual expertises of all the writers, work on his next book, inject some romance into the proceedings, and also (less importantly) manages to defend his use of adverbs and learn to pronounce denouement.

If you think you don’t already know the rules to writing a murder mystery, trust me, you do. It’s all intuitive. I’m writing this in first person. First person equals survival. The rules are simple: nothing supernatural; no surprise identical twins; the killer must be introduced early on and be a major enough character to impact the plot. To prove the point, I’ll tell you that I use the killer’s name, in all its forms, exactly 106 times from here.

The plot and the character arcs fulfill the promise made by this premise and kept me hooked enough to finish the book. I particularly enjoyed Stevenson's style of writing as he emulates the Golden Age mysteries, but with his own breaking-the-fourth-wall flippant humor. Ernest's (Stevenson's) perspective in describing the setting and all the players involved initially was good, but his arc from a disinterested detective to an active player who stood to lose a lot as the stakes got higher was more satisfying!

I will point out that one inadvertent mimicry is the curious coincidence that both cases are solved by a piece of punctuation. Last year it was a full stop. This time, a comma saves the day.

I generally enjoy writers and actors breaking the fourth wall, if subtly done. There was quite a lot that worked in this book, like the little pronouncement about the comma at the beginning of the book. I will admit I kept a look out for suspicious commas and maybe even errant semi-colons.

I also see the point in making sure that the killer is a major character and has enough of an on-page presence. What I did not enjoy was keeping an active tally of the number of times each character was mentioned! Not to forget the number of writers on the train at any given time. The rules followed by the Golden Age mystery writers were to promote one purpose: To allow the reader the satisfaction of deducing the killer on their own, based on everything written that far. This constant counting of the number of times any given name appeared in the book did not promote any rational or logical thought towards figuring out the mystery and kept detracting from the reading experience.

However, we soon get to
The De-noo-moh, not Dee-now-ment (duh)
“I have to go through everyone’s motives and alibis publicly,” I said. “It’s basically a requirement of the genre.”
“Does it usually take this long?” All the crime writers in the room said simultaneously: “Yes.”

🌟🌟🌟

The rating for this book is 3 1/4 stars, rounded down to 3 stars as some of the clues given by the author while breaking the fourth wall annoyed me.

[3/4 star for the premise and the whole book; Half a star for the character arcs; One star for the plot/ story arc; Half a star for the world-building and description; Half a star for the writing - 3 1/4 stars in total.]

Quiz: How many adverbs do you spot in this review? 😉

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson: Book Review

 

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once.
Have I killed someone? Yes. I have.

The first book in the Ernest Cunningham series, by Benjamin Stevenson, follows through on it's title and recounts the killings as a satirical play on the mysteries from the Golden Age. There are multiple mysteries, apart from the original event from a few decades ago that sets everything in motion, and kept me guessing (some correctly!). The setting for this book is an almost snowed-in family reunion and the book follows Ernest, the expert publisher of 10 Easy Steps to Write Crime Like You Lived in the 1930s and Golden Age to Your Golden Page: How to Write a Mystery, as he tries to unravel them before the body count gets too high.

The narrative style has a flippant humour that fans of Knives Out and/or Only murders in the building might relate to. We get plenty of Ernest's comments as he earnestly tries to follow Ronald Knox's ten rules for the murder mystery club. Having recently read a lot of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, I enjoyed this particular style of narration. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series!

🌟🌟🌟🌟

The rating is 3 1/2 stars, rounded up to 4 stars for Goodreads as the series is intriguing.

[3/4 star for the premise and the whole book; One star for the writing; Half a star for the characters; 3/4 star for the story; Half a star for the world-building/ description - 3 1/2 stars in total.]