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carireadsbooksandtarot's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I must admit that I feel I’ve become oversaturated in mysteries set in England in the first half of the 1900s. I’ve read a LOT of them and I think I need a break. This may have influenced my pleasure in reading/listening to this, but then again, I’m judging it against many others in the genre.
First, Rachel Atkins’ narration is flawless. She’s extremely talented, especially when it comes to different voices for different characters that make it easy to tell who is speaking without interrupting the flow or overacting. And this book has quite a few characters.
As the book is the first of the series, it takes time establishing characters and places that really don’t bear on the story of the current story, making the book feel overly long. All those pages did not amount to a growing interest in the family, at least not enough to make me want to continue the series. The mystery is overly complex, I lost the thread a few times and the resolutions didn’t feel believable, even with the excuse of “the things people will do under the extreme circumstances of war.”
I was excited for this book as the Mitford family is a real family and the murder is a real unsolved murder from the time, pulled from the headlines. Unfortunately, the real-life person I am the most fascinated by is Unity Mitford (look her up!) who is only a toddler at this point in the series.
With five books in the series, I have no doubt it probably gets better as we grow with the characters. But set alongside similarly set and themed series by Jacqueline Winspear, Rhys Bowen, and Sulari Gentill, I just don’t feel the need to continue with this one.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence, Suicide, and War
Minor: Sexual violence
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