klndonnelly's review
3.0
I received this from the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
I just couldn't with this book, y'all. Calkins is a talented storyteller who knows how to weave a story, but unfortunately it just didn't work for me.
The story centers around Lucy Campion, a ladies maid promoted to printer's apprentice who gets caught up in a mystery surrounding her former employer's daughter. What turned me off was that Lucy is a Quaker and Calkin's commitment to accuracy means that she writes Lucy's dialogue and the dialogue of other Quakers in the distinct cadence they employed. I appreciate the accuracy - but I didn't enjoy reading it.
If were teaching Quaker lifestyles - which may be the case at some point - I would recommend this book to my students. It paints a wonderful picture of how that group interacted with the greater society in 17th century England and would definitely help students to understand why the Quaker's emigrated on mass to the New World.
I would recommend this book for people who aren't bothered by the dialect and who like a good historical mystery. Like I said, not a bad book, just not for me.
I just couldn't with this book, y'all. Calkins is a talented storyteller who knows how to weave a story, but unfortunately it just didn't work for me.
The story centers around Lucy Campion, a ladies maid promoted to printer's apprentice who gets caught up in a mystery surrounding her former employer's daughter. What turned me off was that Lucy is a Quaker and Calkin's commitment to accuracy means that she writes Lucy's dialogue and the dialogue of other Quakers in the distinct cadence they employed. I appreciate the accuracy - but I didn't enjoy reading it.
If were teaching Quaker lifestyles - which may be the case at some point - I would recommend this book to my students. It paints a wonderful picture of how that group interacted with the greater society in 17th century England and would definitely help students to understand why the Quaker's emigrated on mass to the New World.
I would recommend this book for people who aren't bothered by the dialect and who like a good historical mystery. Like I said, not a bad book, just not for me.
biblioventurer's review
3.0
I have mixed feelings about this mystery. Admittedly, this was the first book I've read in this series, so I may have missed a lot of character development that occurred in the first couple of books. While I've read a fair number of cozy mysteries, this was the first one I've read in a historical setting. I really enjoyed that aspect of it, but I quickly grew annoyed with the stilted style of speech used by the Quaker characters (who play major roles in this book). I didn't solve the murder before the murderer was revealed, but at the same time I didn't have that sense of suspense and action at the end. So while it was a good read, it wasn't a great one.
irishcontessa's review
DNF - Hit a love triangle which these days is where I bail. It might be a perfectly good mystery but not if it's cluttered up with that crap.
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