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tracey_stewart's review against another edition
2.0
You would think that after decades of reading, and decades of disappointments, I would have learned that – sometimes – there really is truth to that old saw about a book by its cover. But sometimes you can judge a book! And look at this one! It's gorgeous!
Dammit.
So the story goes that Mirabelle worked in the offices for the secret service during WWII, though she never went into the field, and now that the war is over she has a job working with a debt collector. A client comes in one day looking to get his money back from a girl who has disappeared and then she turns up dead only something seems hinky about it and meanwhile Mirabelle's boss is home sick but then he disappears too and then there's a high-end prostitute who kills her client and they're all connected to this other woman and also to this priest that Mirabelle and her now-dead lover Jack knew in the war and then he disappears along with the girl who works in the office down the hall from Mirabelle who gets swept into the whole mess and kidnapped and … did I leave anything out? Probably.
Actually, one thing I'm leaving out is the motivation behind it all. There's a sort of "oh, really?" reveal – "He walked over to the corner of the room and dramatically pulled off the tarpaulin to reveal" something very exciting. That would have been such a dramatic moment … if the reader didn't already know all about it. Actually, all of the revelations – like the identity of that girl who owed the money – were kind of lame.
Mirabelle … She is the epitome of the "I'm not going to tell the police anything because obviously I know far better than they do" kind of detective. She decides that with her training she's totally qualified to fling herself into the whole thing and get to the bottom of it. She flings caution and common sense (and legality) to the wind and begins breaking into places willy-nilly. Of course she appropriates evidence. One suspect/witness tells her so much upon three minutes' acquaintance and some very awkward questioning that I think my mouth was hanging open for the whole scene – it was absurd.
The only plausible excuse for this kind of interference by a civilian is that the police are either uninterested or incompetent. And here, to use one of my favorite Star Trek quotes, "Sorry – neither." The cop in charge is not stupid, and he's working the case(s) as hard anyone could. And all I could think as this woman tromps through crime scenes and flies by the seat of her pants was that if she would only collaborate with the cops everything might resolve more quickly and safely. Example: she finds herself looking for a house somewhere there have been noise complaints – something the police should have the resources to be able to find very quickly.
"We need information, Miss Churchill, but this isn’t a job for amateurs."
And then the young woman from the office down the hall, Vesta, becomes involved. Where Mirabelle has a modicum of training from the war, Vesta is pure civilian, and struck me as little more than a lamb to the slaughter. She does not volunteer – she is volunteered by Mirabelle. She baffles me, Vesta does. She's a black woman struggling to succeed in post-war England, and I think she's supposed to be of Jamaican origins, but she comes off as American South.
In the end, terrible things happen that I can't imagine would have happened if Mirabelle hadn't been trying to do it all on her own with her even more inexperienced helper. It was completely implausible, and deeply irritating, and when a completely and utterly unnecessary death occurs the book loses any possibility of anything more than a two-star rating.
Chapter headings throughout are taken from many different sources, but these sources are not, as they usually are, given with the quotes. Instead they're all lumped into one page at the end… so when one chapter is headed "All right then, I’ll go to hell" I was just … confused. (Sorry, I'm behind on my Twain.) Either the author didn't put any thought into it, or she gave the reader far more credit than this one deserves in quote identification.
What amazes me is that after so many things go wrong, such horrific things happen – after Mirabelle spends a time (accurately) bemoaning things like "I’ve failed .... I can’t save anyone, least of all myself. There are corpses everywhere. I’m the kiss of death" … still, at the end she is so pleased with herself that she and Vesta are going into business together. And a whole new series is born. "We got skills", Vesta states.
Like what? Like only screwing things up badly enough that some people get killed, not everyone?
It may not need saying that I had a hard time liking Mirabelle. Part of the reader's introduction to her is as she avoids paying a fee for using a deck chair … even though it comes to be pretty obvious that she has ample money. (Which explains a lot, doesn't it.) The writing is mostly adequate to the task of telling the story, in terms of putting sentences together, but as my attempt at summarizing the plot above may indicate it's all very confused. There is head-hopping; there is homonym confusion; there are a few really jumbled, slightly disastrous sentences. Overall … not a promising beginning.
One last note – I find it depressing that the only two books I've ever seen use my grandmother's maiden name, Duggan, are this one and another one which was nearly as bad.
The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.
Dammit.
So the story goes that Mirabelle worked in the offices for the secret service during WWII, though she never went into the field, and now that the war is over she has a job working with a debt collector. A client comes in one day looking to get his money back from a girl who has disappeared and then she turns up dead only something seems hinky about it and meanwhile Mirabelle's boss is home sick but then he disappears too and then there's a high-end prostitute who kills her client and they're all connected to this other woman and also to this priest that Mirabelle and her now-dead lover Jack knew in the war and then he disappears along with the girl who works in the office down the hall from Mirabelle who gets swept into the whole mess and kidnapped and … did I leave anything out? Probably.
Actually, one thing I'm leaving out is the motivation behind it all. There's a sort of "oh, really?" reveal – "He walked over to the corner of the room and dramatically pulled off the tarpaulin to reveal" something very exciting. That would have been such a dramatic moment … if the reader didn't already know all about it. Actually, all of the revelations – like the identity of that girl who owed the money – were kind of lame.
Mirabelle … She is the epitome of the "I'm not going to tell the police anything because obviously I know far better than they do" kind of detective. She decides that with her training she's totally qualified to fling herself into the whole thing and get to the bottom of it. She flings caution and common sense (and legality) to the wind and begins breaking into places willy-nilly. Of course she appropriates evidence. One suspect/witness tells her so much upon three minutes' acquaintance and some very awkward questioning that I think my mouth was hanging open for the whole scene – it was absurd.
The only plausible excuse for this kind of interference by a civilian is that the police are either uninterested or incompetent. And here, to use one of my favorite Star Trek quotes, "Sorry – neither." The cop in charge is not stupid, and he's working the case(s) as hard anyone could. And all I could think as this woman tromps through crime scenes and flies by the seat of her pants was that if she would only collaborate with the cops everything might resolve more quickly and safely. Example: she finds herself looking for a house somewhere there have been noise complaints – something the police should have the resources to be able to find very quickly.
"We need information, Miss Churchill, but this isn’t a job for amateurs."
And then the young woman from the office down the hall, Vesta, becomes involved. Where Mirabelle has a modicum of training from the war, Vesta is pure civilian, and struck me as little more than a lamb to the slaughter. She does not volunteer – she is volunteered by Mirabelle. She baffles me, Vesta does. She's a black woman struggling to succeed in post-war England, and I think she's supposed to be of Jamaican origins, but she comes off as American South.
In the end, terrible things happen that I can't imagine would have happened if Mirabelle hadn't been trying to do it all on her own with her even more inexperienced helper. It was completely implausible, and deeply irritating, and when a completely and utterly unnecessary death occurs the book loses any possibility of anything more than a two-star rating.
Chapter headings throughout are taken from many different sources, but these sources are not, as they usually are, given with the quotes. Instead they're all lumped into one page at the end… so when one chapter is headed "All right then, I’ll go to hell" I was just … confused. (Sorry, I'm behind on my Twain.) Either the author didn't put any thought into it, or she gave the reader far more credit than this one deserves in quote identification.
What amazes me is that after so many things go wrong, such horrific things happen – after Mirabelle spends a time (accurately) bemoaning things like "I’ve failed .... I can’t save anyone, least of all myself. There are corpses everywhere. I’m the kiss of death" … still, at the end she is so pleased with herself that she and Vesta are going into business together. And a whole new series is born. "We got skills", Vesta states.
Like what? Like only screwing things up badly enough that some people get killed, not everyone?
It may not need saying that I had a hard time liking Mirabelle. Part of the reader's introduction to her is as she avoids paying a fee for using a deck chair … even though it comes to be pretty obvious that she has ample money. (Which explains a lot, doesn't it.) The writing is mostly adequate to the task of telling the story, in terms of putting sentences together, but as my attempt at summarizing the plot above may indicate it's all very confused. There is head-hopping; there is homonym confusion; there are a few really jumbled, slightly disastrous sentences. Overall … not a promising beginning.
One last note – I find it depressing that the only two books I've ever seen use my grandmother's maiden name, Duggan, are this one and another one which was nearly as bad.
The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.
veronica87's review against another edition
3.0
Set in Brighton, England in 1951, this entertaining mystery story centers on Mirabelle Bevan, an intelligent woman in her (I'm guessing) mid-thirties who, much like England itself, is still recovering from the after effects of WW1. For Mirabelle, that means mourning the death of her lover 18 months ago. She's been going through the motions of her life, having left behind her work in intelligence with the British Secret Service (which her lover, Jack, also did) to seek out peaceful monotony working for a debt collection agency. When a new debt collection case comes in that doesn't add up and her boss goes missing, Mirabelle's old Secret Service instincts get activated. As she follows the clues and the plot thickens, she crosses paths with Vesta Churchill ("no relation"), the plucky secretary in the insurance company across the hall, and Detective Inspector Alan McGregor.
This was a quick read but it was well paced, not perfect but not a lot that felt like filler either. I really liked Mirabelle as well as the secondary characters, though they can all use some more fleshing out. The mystery aspect had branches seemingly going off in all sorts of directions but it gets tied together in the end and it's quite time appropriate considering what was going on during those post-war years. I'm definitely going to read more in this series.
This was a quick read but it was well paced, not perfect but not a lot that felt like filler either. I really liked Mirabelle as well as the secondary characters, though they can all use some more fleshing out. The mystery aspect had branches seemingly going off in all sorts of directions but it gets tied together in the end and it's quite time appropriate considering what was going on during those post-war years. I'm definitely going to read more in this series.
leavingsealevel's review against another edition
2.0
Promising Maisie Dobbs readalike! So "promising," in fact, that I'd be feeling a bit ripped off by Mirabelle were I Maisie. Let's review...both series plots seem to contain:
Young female character. Postwar. Did something heroic and unconventional during the war. Kinda traumatized by it. Had slightly unacceptable love affair during said war. Ended tragically. Now back in England. Trying to do something totally different. Solves mysteries. Past creeps back. Has diversity sidekick.
About that diversity sidekick. I'll gladly read a few more of these, but Vesta had better be given an actual *personality* sometime soon, in addition to only being being The Black Friend Who Illustrates How English Society Is Racist and Helps Solve the Mystery.
Young female character. Postwar. Did something heroic and unconventional during the war. Kinda traumatized by it. Had slightly unacceptable love affair during said war. Ended tragically. Now back in England. Trying to do something totally different. Solves mysteries. Past creeps back. Has diversity sidekick.
About that diversity sidekick. I'll gladly read a few more of these, but Vesta had better be given an actual *personality* sometime soon, in addition to only being being The Black Friend Who Illustrates How English Society Is Racist and Helps Solve the Mystery.
corkykat's review against another edition
3.0
I won this book in a goodreads giveaway in exchange for a fair review.
I want to start off by saying that the cover for this book is beautiful. It's the only thing that I absolutely would not change.
The characters are also pretty good. They're interesting, each with their own strengths and flaws. I think that the character development was the main thing that pulled me through this book.
But that almost wasn't enough. Man, was this book slow. I don't know what it was. The plot was fairly interesting. The main issue, I think, was the writing style itself. There were run on sentences, comma issues, and other unpleasant grammar slips. I found the writing to be boring, and the perspective changes were unsuccessful and confusing. The book took me far too long to read, and I wish that I had enjoyed it more. This book probably rests at about 2.5 stars for me.
Luckily, the end picked up a bit, but I was overall disappointed with the pace and writing quality in the novel.
I want to start off by saying that the cover for this book is beautiful. It's the only thing that I absolutely would not change.
The characters are also pretty good. They're interesting, each with their own strengths and flaws. I think that the character development was the main thing that pulled me through this book.
But that almost wasn't enough. Man, was this book slow. I don't know what it was. The plot was fairly interesting. The main issue, I think, was the writing style itself. There were run on sentences, comma issues, and other unpleasant grammar slips. I found the writing to be boring, and the perspective changes were unsuccessful and confusing. The book took me far too long to read, and I wish that I had enjoyed it more. This book probably rests at about 2.5 stars for me.
Luckily, the end picked up a bit, but I was overall disappointed with the pace and writing quality in the novel.
atlantic_reader_wannabe's review against another edition
3.0
This book was an interesting one. Taking place in Brighton, England after the end of WWII, this story gave the reader something to be interested in. While it was a quick read, it didn't disappoint. Worth reading in my opinion.
*won as a GoodReads Giveaway*
*won as a GoodReads Giveaway*
lumbermouth's review against another edition
3.0
This seems like a lighter, fluffier Mary Russel-type. More overt misogyny and racism, but enjoyable hijinks. The librarians suggested this as an "if you liked that try this" and they kinda nailed it.