a Mary and Bright novel book #1
by Sandra Sookoo
GENRE: #Christmas-cozy-mystery-romance #RegencyChristmas
My rating: ★★☆☆☆
Disappointing !
---> Recommended only for readers interested in steamy romance.
If you are a mystery reader don't waste your time with this.
I was so happy to start a new mystery-romance series and after having appreciated a short story by this author I was expecting to find a good mystery to be solved and a sweet and exciting romance and a nice Christmas atmosphere...
... But some romance writers should stick to romance novels and leave mysteries to those who are more competent at writing them.
__PLOT IN SHORT __ The widow Mary Tomlinson has been living as a recluse in her brother's house for some time to take care of him and her young niece, when one day she has to accompany the girl to a ball.
The ball takes place at the house of a count with whom she lost her virginity as a young woman, only to be abandoned when he was due to marry.
Inspector Gabriel Bright is the brother of the count who hosts the ball, he too is invited to the party as a companion for his twenty-year-old son.
The inspector is also a widower and like Mary has suffered a huge disappointment in the love field.
A mutual attraction instantly sparkles between the two companions and at the ball everything seems fun until an obnoxious butler is found dead.
____________*********____________
I think the story had great potential to be a good book, unfortunately it isn't well developed :
1) CHRISTMAS ATMOSPHERE = non-existent. If one of the purposes of the book is to "be Christmassy" and the word Christmas is also in the title, then the fact that Christmas is only mentioned in words and there is no Christmas atmosphere, in my opinion it's a flaw !
MORE IMPORTANT : IF ONE WANTS TO WRITE A MYSTERY, ONE MUST ALSO KNOW HOW TO DO IT !!!
2) MYSTERY = not at all well thought and and too many things are so wrong :
--> The Main Male Character, despite being an inspector, takes charge of a murder case that occurred in his brother's house.
Worse: his son was seen by everyone with the weapon in his hands and he's the prime suspect.
How is it possible that this inspector can (on his own initiative, without any permission from Scotland Yard) take on the responsibility of investigating? CONFLICT OF INTEREST!! UNACCEPTABLE
---> Furthermore, he declares that he can only trust himself. I asked myself : WHO MUST ENSURE OTHERS THAT HE IS NOT CORRUPT?
---> Then he names the woman he kissed (another guest of the house which had a past with the owner of the house where happened the murder ) as his assistant in the investigation...
ALL GUESTS ARE SUSPECTS AND MORE SHE ALSO HAD A SOLID MOTIVE TO MURDER THE MAN.
Then the suspect's father, brother of the owner of the house where the murder took place, investigates the murder together with another potential culprit... CRAZY THINGS!! AGAIN UNACCEPTABLE
---> The author also points out that they take everything with gloves and a handkerchief...BUT THE STORY TAKES PLACE IN 1818, THERE WAS STILL NO OPTION TO VERIFY FINGERPRINTS !!
---> His son, found with the bloody knife in his hand, is only 20 years old, if he is not the killer then he found the body...he is presumed to be upset...YET HIS FATHER, THE INSPECTOR, SENDS HIM TO THE ROOM AND FOR OVER 2 DAYS AND IGNORE HIM (without questioning him and without going to see how he is), BUT THE SAME FATHER FINDS THE TIME TO QUESTION 2 OTHER GUESTS (and not his son) AND FLIRT( + ALMOST HAVING SEX ON THE DESK IN THE STUDY ) with a woman he just met.
Hot kisses and sex are entirely inappropriate in that dramatic moment... SHOULDN'T HE WORRY ABOUT HIS YOUNG SON?
Well in 2 days neither the hero nor the heroine of the novel cared about him. Disgusting.
Everything in this book is focused on the attraction between the two MC and their hunger for sex.
---> Another stupid thing:
When they finally question the boy together... suddenly the twenty year old boy (who has an excellent relationship of affection and friendship with his father, as the author shows us in some initial scenes) looks scared and intimidated by his father as if he were a stranger and was too strict and for every movement and response he ( the boy ) seeks comfort in the woman, a stranger he has just met, like if he were a 6 year old little boy as if he's known her forever... it's just ridiculous and it conflicts with everything that was written before. RIDICULOUS!!!
---> Then at a certain point the author has the Female Main Character, who is neither a doctor nor an investigation expert, check the dead man... and she examines the corpse like a professional, while the inspector (with 20 years of experience) stands there, staring at her in amazement like an open-mouthed idiot.
The author justifies everything by saying that the protagonist is a reader of crime novels... SO ONE BECOME AN EXPERT PATHOLOGISTS ONLY BECAUSE IS USED TO READ MYSTERY NOVELS ????? ...Come on, this isn't believable even in fiction
MORE : I remember you that they are in 1818, they had not mystery books so explicative as nowadays mystery books like CSI tv series ( and even nowadays I doubt one could know so much only by reading or watching tv ).
:-(( Of course the book is full of other bullshit that made me very nervous and ruined the reading, but it would take me too long to list them all.
3) ROMANCE = The romantic part looks more like a contemporary romance than one set in the early 1800s.
Audacity in main characters behaviour and double-meaning dialogues that would have been funny in a contemporary brilliant comedy, in my opinion are not so plausible in the Regency era (it is 1818), at least not for a woman who spent 10 years as a spinster, acting as governess in the house of the brother.
---> It looks like the author was inspired by some modern films and adapted dialogues to a regency romance.
---> Furthermore :the book begins by showing the two protagonists respectively as lonely and partnerless people for the last 10 years, disappointed and deeply hurt by those they had loved in the past and almost on every page it is underlined that they will never openly trust someone else again.Suddenly they collide in the carriage house, without even seeing her face he feels the shape of a woman and instinctively kisses her, she feels the hard chest of a man and responds to the kiss by putting her arms around his neck.
Well... I admit that after 10 years of solitude they are hungry for stronger emotions and even sex, but two people who have been alone for ten years wouldn't be so uninhibited, they would be rather awkward, furthermore two people who fear suffering again don't throw themselves in each other's arms so immediately and with such an hot passion as these two.
I find this hardly believable!
The plot is full of inconsistencies and seems to be written specifically for readers who want nothing more than to read spicy love scenes and are not interested in everything else.
I WILL NOT READ OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES.
Thanks for reading my opinion and please forgive my bad English, since it's not my native language.
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