Cat’s Claw by Susan Wittig Albert
Cat's Claw is the twentieth book in the China Bayles Herbal Mysteries series. And after nineteen books in the series, this one alters from the previous books in that most of the story is told by a supporting character. With a few exception paragraphs, all the previous books had been told in first person by the main character. It was an interesting way to tell the story, but did give an limited view of the other characters. This installment is different, and while many other reviewers do not like the change in point of view, I enjoyed it.
I like China and I like her telling of the story, but it was nice to get to know another character well by experiencing the story from her perspective. Series books can get extremely formulaic. Changing it up by moving the main characters outside their comfort zone is the most common way of combating the formula issues. Other ways are making a huge life change for the main character or introducing new, adversarial characters. And the China Bayles series has done both of those in other books. I find I enjoyed the change in character focus this book took. It definitely gave the reader a new perspective on one of the main, supporting characters.
The mystery itself was interesting and how the story was woven together was creative, particular the comeuppance of one of the particularly unsavory characters. Of course, like most series mysteries, many characters to this book are one-off introductions — we will only meet them in this episode. And others are like the unnamed red-shirted officer of Star Trek fame — you just know they will be the victim, or perpetrator.
So in many ways, this was a follow-the-dots series mystery installment, but the different perspective of telling the story mainly from a supporting character’s point-of-view makes it feel new and fresh, and not as formulaic as other episodes in the same series.
I would definitely recommend reading the previous books in the series before picking up this one. Reading this one alone might not give you the best introduction to the series and it may make you less likely to enjoy the other books, which would be a shame. But if you have read other China Bayles Herbal Mysteries, definitely do not pass up this one. And don’t listen to those other reviews that say it’s not as good as the others.
One Bear’s Opinion: Four cups of chamomile tea and warm oatmeal scones
Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Monday, January 18, 2016
One Bear's Opinion -- Book Review
Death in the Truffle Wood by Pierre Magnan
My housemate picked up this book in a close-out bookstore. She said it looked interesting, and more importantly, it looked to be a cozy mystery, which are hard to come by here in Australia. I prefer my mysteries, and actually all my leisure reading, on the lighter, less graphic side. I find the section that in American bookstores would be called Mysteries, is generally called Crime here. And the difference is more than in just the word on the heading label. I find light fluffy mysteries with puns in the titles are not really easily found in the bookstores here. It makes it difficult for readers like me who prefer lighter mysteries. Though it is sometimes much easier to find cozy mysteries in close-out bookstores or remainder bins at the mass-market, big-box stores. But this book looked from the cover and description like a book we would enjoy. And as one of a set of 6 for $50 books, she thought it was worth a try.
The quoted review on the cover declared Death in the Truffle Wood was a “quirky” mystery. That was not wrong. It was definitely quirky, both in the characters and the style of writing. I am sure most of that was the author’s own tone and style of writing. But some of the quirkiness may have come with the translation from French to English. Nuances of language can get lost in translation, and sometimes the resulting meaning is a bit different than the original words would have indicated. It’s a known problem with translated works. And while most such translated books I have read were very well done, this one may not have been as well translated, or the translator may have imposed his own style on the work.
The book opened with one set of characters, then jumped to a completely different set in another location for the second chapter. The third and fourth chapters introduced new characters and different locations again. It was well into the book before the characters and settings started to come together and make some sort of sense. I prefer a much more logical progression style of story telling, where the action takes place in a logical, continual manner. I do not like to be switching quickly between unconnected characters and settings, and having new characters brought in independently of established ones. It makes the flow of the book quite choppy and, in my opinion, does not encourage long, lingering stretches of time with the book. Choppy chapters are more suited to quick visits rather than long stays. A book with choppy style will always take longer for me to read than a book with a natural progression style. In reading this book, I felt as though I was dragging myself through the book rather than being pulled along by the story.
I did not come to like the characters very much, they did not become friends and in the end I really did not have a great connection to many of them. In fact, most of them, in my opinion were not nice people; certainly not the kind of people I would want as friends. The only characters I did develop a connection with were the animals: Roseline, the truffle hunting pig and Mambo the dachshund. It was that latter character that really led me to finish the book. He was abandoned in the opening chapter of the book as he master was murdered, and it was the final chapter before he was rescued and re-homed. That was very disturbing to me, and the character’s indifference to the dog was seriously distressing. I had to get to the end of the book to ensure the dog was rescued.
Overall, the book was enjoyable, but only just. I have no desire to have further adventures with the characters, and no real need to seek out anything else by the author.
One Bear’s Opinion: One glass of disappointingly dry red wine with some slightly stale crackers and the rind-y bits of a wheel of brie
Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver
My housemate picked up this book in a close-out bookstore. She said it looked interesting, and more importantly, it looked to be a cozy mystery, which are hard to come by here in Australia. I prefer my mysteries, and actually all my leisure reading, on the lighter, less graphic side. I find the section that in American bookstores would be called Mysteries, is generally called Crime here. And the difference is more than in just the word on the heading label. I find light fluffy mysteries with puns in the titles are not really easily found in the bookstores here. It makes it difficult for readers like me who prefer lighter mysteries. Though it is sometimes much easier to find cozy mysteries in close-out bookstores or remainder bins at the mass-market, big-box stores. But this book looked from the cover and description like a book we would enjoy. And as one of a set of 6 for $50 books, she thought it was worth a try.
The quoted review on the cover declared Death in the Truffle Wood was a “quirky” mystery. That was not wrong. It was definitely quirky, both in the characters and the style of writing. I am sure most of that was the author’s own tone and style of writing. But some of the quirkiness may have come with the translation from French to English. Nuances of language can get lost in translation, and sometimes the resulting meaning is a bit different than the original words would have indicated. It’s a known problem with translated works. And while most such translated books I have read were very well done, this one may not have been as well translated, or the translator may have imposed his own style on the work.
The book opened with one set of characters, then jumped to a completely different set in another location for the second chapter. The third and fourth chapters introduced new characters and different locations again. It was well into the book before the characters and settings started to come together and make some sort of sense. I prefer a much more logical progression style of story telling, where the action takes place in a logical, continual manner. I do not like to be switching quickly between unconnected characters and settings, and having new characters brought in independently of established ones. It makes the flow of the book quite choppy and, in my opinion, does not encourage long, lingering stretches of time with the book. Choppy chapters are more suited to quick visits rather than long stays. A book with choppy style will always take longer for me to read than a book with a natural progression style. In reading this book, I felt as though I was dragging myself through the book rather than being pulled along by the story.
I did not come to like the characters very much, they did not become friends and in the end I really did not have a great connection to many of them. In fact, most of them, in my opinion were not nice people; certainly not the kind of people I would want as friends. The only characters I did develop a connection with were the animals: Roseline, the truffle hunting pig and Mambo the dachshund. It was that latter character that really led me to finish the book. He was abandoned in the opening chapter of the book as he master was murdered, and it was the final chapter before he was rescued and re-homed. That was very disturbing to me, and the character’s indifference to the dog was seriously distressing. I had to get to the end of the book to ensure the dog was rescued.
Overall, the book was enjoyable, but only just. I have no desire to have further adventures with the characters, and no real need to seek out anything else by the author.
One Bear’s Opinion: One glass of disappointingly dry red wine with some slightly stale crackers and the rind-y bits of a wheel of brie
Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)