suze_1624's review
4.0
A quick update with Peter and Nick, 3 yrs after the wedding.
Peter manages to get drunk and end up embroiled with another murder - not surprisingly, though it has been 3 years since the last one at his wedding.
Nick is particularly obnoxious at the start of the story, making me wonder what Peter sees in him once again!
However, Nick's last secret is revealed as it pertains to the murder also. The murdered person is not nice as his murderer is pushed by circumstances to breaking point.
It is a fairly good end to the series if we end here - though I would like more of Peter's meddlesome investigating!
Peter manages to get drunk and end up embroiled with another murder - not surprisingly, though it has been 3 years since the last one at his wedding.
Nick is particularly obnoxious at the start of the story, making me wonder what Peter sees in him once again!
However, Nick's last secret is revealed as it pertains to the murder also. The murdered person is not nice as his murderer is pushed by circumstances to breaking point.
It is a fairly good end to the series if we end here - though I would like more of Peter's meddlesome investigating!
the_novel_approach's review
4.0
Where Peter Fontaine goes, trouble is sure to follow, and I’m sad that Pentimento Blues is the final novella in Nicole Kimberling’s delightful Bellingham Mysteries series. This book serves as a reminder of everything there will be to miss about both the series and its characters. First of all, there’s Bellingham, Washington (which I count as a character), where the number of murderers per capita seems inordinately high, which only adds to the city’s interest—especially since its unofficial motto is the City of Subdued Excitement. What’s not to love about the concept of murder and chill in the PNW?
One of the things I’m going to miss most, of course, is Peter’s inner narratives. As an investigative journalist for the Hamster, and an amateur sleuth to boot, he not only gives his stoner boss, Doug, some grief, but he has a wealth of inspiration to draw from when sowing the seeds of his fertile imagination. He hasn’t written the great American novel—yet—but the tendency to compose in his head, and his drunk daydream in Pentimento, are each a comical reminder that there’s more than just the mysteries for him to solve in these novellas. Not to be outdone in the humor department, though, is Peter’s best friend, Evangeline. She’s just that quirky and original, and I’ve loved playing witness to their friendship. It kinda makes you want to tag along as their third wheel—but then you’re also a little be afraid that you just aren’t interesting or cool enough to hang with them. Or, maybe that’s just me.
Then there’s Nick Olsen, the love of Peter’s life. Nick has never been what you’d call an open book, and is a little (okay, a lot) moody and broody and temperamental. But he’s an artist, so he gets a pass. If someone isn’t out to get Peter, giving Nick a reason to rush in and save the day, then there’s someone out to get Nick himself (these guys are trouble magnets). When the past comes back to bite Nick on the buttocks in this installment, it ends badly for his blackmailer and leaves Peter wondering, albeit it momentarily, if his husband is capable of murder. Don’t worry, though; even this development spins into Peter’s version of romantic.
Pentimento Blues, like the other books in the series, are more mystery-lite than heavy on the investigative procedural, but we readers get just enough of the criminal element to have fun watching Peter snoop his way into danger while helping solve the crime. I love that he sort of oopsie daisies his way into solving this one, and that I didn’t know exactly who’d committed the crime until the exact moment Peter figured it out. I also love that Nicole Kimberling gives readers the opportunity to have some sympathy for the killer, and I really love the moral ambiguity of it. It makes me feel a little dirty to say the victim kind of had it coming, but I can say it with a figurative level of comfort because, hey, that’s some nice writing in my humble opinion.
If you haven’t started reading this series yet, don’t try to begin here. While each novella is its own neat little mystery, the development of Peter and Nick’s romance should be savored from book one, Primal Red, and then working your way through from there. The storytelling here is uncluttered, the characters flawed and funny, the setting the perfect mix of homey and eclectic, and Kimberling’s prose is just so easy to lose yourself in for a while. This series is a really good bit of reading entertainment, and while I’m feeling sentimental that it’s over, the end was well worth the wild little trip to the Pacific Northwest.
Reviewed by Lisa for The Novel Approach Reviews
One of the things I’m going to miss most, of course, is Peter’s inner narratives. As an investigative journalist for the Hamster, and an amateur sleuth to boot, he not only gives his stoner boss, Doug, some grief, but he has a wealth of inspiration to draw from when sowing the seeds of his fertile imagination. He hasn’t written the great American novel—yet—but the tendency to compose in his head, and his drunk daydream in Pentimento, are each a comical reminder that there’s more than just the mysteries for him to solve in these novellas. Not to be outdone in the humor department, though, is Peter’s best friend, Evangeline. She’s just that quirky and original, and I’ve loved playing witness to their friendship. It kinda makes you want to tag along as their third wheel—but then you’re also a little be afraid that you just aren’t interesting or cool enough to hang with them. Or, maybe that’s just me.
Then there’s Nick Olsen, the love of Peter’s life. Nick has never been what you’d call an open book, and is a little (okay, a lot) moody and broody and temperamental. But he’s an artist, so he gets a pass. If someone isn’t out to get Peter, giving Nick a reason to rush in and save the day, then there’s someone out to get Nick himself (these guys are trouble magnets). When the past comes back to bite Nick on the buttocks in this installment, it ends badly for his blackmailer and leaves Peter wondering, albeit it momentarily, if his husband is capable of murder. Don’t worry, though; even this development spins into Peter’s version of romantic.
Pentimento Blues, like the other books in the series, are more mystery-lite than heavy on the investigative procedural, but we readers get just enough of the criminal element to have fun watching Peter snoop his way into danger while helping solve the crime. I love that he sort of oopsie daisies his way into solving this one, and that I didn’t know exactly who’d committed the crime until the exact moment Peter figured it out. I also love that Nicole Kimberling gives readers the opportunity to have some sympathy for the killer, and I really love the moral ambiguity of it. It makes me feel a little dirty to say the victim kind of had it coming, but I can say it with a figurative level of comfort because, hey, that’s some nice writing in my humble opinion.
If you haven’t started reading this series yet, don’t try to begin here. While each novella is its own neat little mystery, the development of Peter and Nick’s romance should be savored from book one, Primal Red, and then working your way through from there. The storytelling here is uncluttered, the characters flawed and funny, the setting the perfect mix of homey and eclectic, and Kimberling’s prose is just so easy to lose yourself in for a while. This series is a really good bit of reading entertainment, and while I’m feeling sentimental that it’s over, the end was well worth the wild little trip to the Pacific Northwest.
Reviewed by Lisa for The Novel Approach Reviews
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