brooke4131's review against another edition
4.0
I'm fairly certain that I read a different book than some of the other reviewers! I absolutely loved Sweet Poison and thought it was a wonderful period mystery. Please don't automatically compare this to the Peter Wimsey stories - yes, it takes place around the same time period and does involve a member of the British aristocracy, but it's an excellent story that can hold its own.
Lord Edward Corinth and Verity Browne are good main characters that the author uses to narrate his story from two very different viewpoints. I was slightly disappointed with the ending, but it did keep me guessing. All in all, a well told mystery and I'm looking forward to the next in the series.
Lord Edward Corinth and Verity Browne are good main characters that the author uses to narrate his story from two very different viewpoints. I was slightly disappointed with the ending, but it did keep me guessing. All in all, a well told mystery and I'm looking forward to the next in the series.
verityw's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting read, with a solution that I didn't guess, which kicks off a series. Both the leading characters are interesting - Lord Edward owes a debt to Lord Peter Wimsey - although Edward was too young to serve in the war (and consequently doesn't have Peter's "combination of nerves and nose"). I'm still trying to figure Verity out - she's quite abrasive and difficult to like at times, but it makes for an interesting dynamic between the two of them. I'll definitely be reading more in the series.
jmeston's review against another edition
2.0
At just past the halfway mark in this book a main character discovers a dead body in a house in 1937 London. He goes to a neighbor and asks for a telephone, they don't have one, he's directed to another neighbor who does have a phone. He dials 999 and requests police assistance.
I threw down the book and howled about anachronism and "how young is this author, anyway?!" Then my husband looked up the fact that London has the oldest emergency phone system in the world, it was instituted in 1937. My howls are dimmed but not extinguished. The average joe would have no knowledge of this brand new system that had just been created. And I have never come across the 999 thing in any 30s or 40s novel I can remember reading.
Later in the book a main character is speaking to Duke SoandSo and says something like, "You don't mind if we go out to the garden, Duke?" She's supposed to be a well educated young gentlewoman who has been slumming with the communists. But no matter what her political sympathies I trust she would know to refer to her host as Your Grace rather than Duke, like some sort of American gangster.
I finished the book to see who dunnit and which way the protags were going to jump. I won't be pursuing this series.
I threw down the book and howled about anachronism and "how young is this author, anyway?!" Then my husband looked up the fact that London has the oldest emergency phone system in the world, it was instituted in 1937. My howls are dimmed but not extinguished. The average joe would have no knowledge of this brand new system that had just been created. And I have never come across the 999 thing in any 30s or 40s novel I can remember reading.
Later in the book a main character is speaking to Duke SoandSo and says something like, "You don't mind if we go out to the garden, Duke?" She's supposed to be a well educated young gentlewoman who has been slumming with the communists. But no matter what her political sympathies I trust she would know to refer to her host as Your Grace rather than Duke, like some sort of American gangster.
I finished the book to see who dunnit and which way the protags were going to jump. I won't be pursuing this series.
julieputty's review
Just did absolutely nothing for me. Clunky writing, characters I didn't believe in or like.
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