Micro Review 70

 

Murder Before Evensong by Richard Coles (Orion)

Crime novels, however cosy, aren't something that I read very often. In fact most of the ones I've ever finished have been in my to be read pile because I need to review them for various projects, rarely after that do I read other books by the author. I must be one of the only people around who didn't get on with Ricard Osman's books.

I've liked Coles' writing style in his non fiction books and his tweets often make me laugh (or think) and so I was really pleased when I was given access to this one early thanks to the publisher and Net Galley.

I really liked it, and felt that Coles' voice really came through and even in my head I could hear him 'reading' it to me. I liked the characters and while it did feel a little 'written for TV' I felt inordinately pleased when I did solve half of the mystery (who but not why) as usually I miss this completely. 

However since I finished the book I know two others who have read it and they both had the same problem with it - there were just too many ecclesiastical terms and references that they didn't recognise which spoilt the book for them. Thinking back I realised that I'd had this issue too but because I was reading on my Kindle I could just highlight the word or phrase and I'd instantly get a definition without losing my reading stride...a feature of reading eBooks that I'd not fully appreciated until now.

I'm already looking forward to the next one and that's not something I say often about a crime book.

Many thanks to Orion and NetGalley for my copy of this book - I was under no obligation to write a positive review

Quick Reads whilst reading slowly

The kindness of Twitter

Happily my reading stamina is still increasing following my recent illness (although it has slowed/gone a little backwards as I am tired out by a limited return to work) but while I was really struggling the kind people from ED Public Relations (@ed.pr on twitter) sent me a surprise parcel comprising three of the 2018 Quick Reads titles.

From my work in the library I was aware of the Quick Reads promotion which

 "was founded by Baroness Gail Rebuck DBE in 2006 to provide shorter, easier to read, accessible fiction for less confident adult readers. Now in its 12th year, the programme has distributed over 4.8 million books since it was launched and introduced hundreds of thousands of new readers each year to the joys and benefits of reading."

It took me a while to read them but I did enjoy them greatly but the biggest discovery for me was the Inspector Chopra book.  This is a mystery set in the back streets of Mumbai and featured a private detective and his pet baby elephant solving a the mystery of a missing car.

On many levels this book wasn't an instant fit: how was I going to follow the plot of a crime/mystery novel at a time when I had real concentration and memory problems? Also how was I going to be able to break an already short book up into chunks that I could physically manage to read? Oh, and the biggie, as a rule the crime genre really isn't my cup of tea!

The wise people from @edpr obviously knew what they were doing for the format of the book was just right, the chapters were complete vignettes and easy to start and stop. The mystery was just complicated enough so that I didn't guess 'whodunnit' but not so complicated I couldn't follow the reasoning. The addition of a baby elephant sidekick is a genius idea. The book may also be considered easier to read but for me it perfectly conjured Mumbai and I felt like I was watching a movie as I was reading, fewer words creating a full picture regardless.

Now I am more recovered I will look out for the full length novels by Vaseem Kahn but I am a little nervous that they won't be as good as this short book. I know that the short story format is considered both hard to write and hard to sell but it worked splendidly here and I'd love to read more short stories in this world.

Again many thanks to those at ED Public Relations who sent the books to me as a gift and with no expectations that I'd review them.