A review by arrrjae
Barnabas Tew and The Case Of The Missing Scarab by Columbkill Noonan
3.0
A Victorian London detective story with a touch of Egyptian mythology. I say a touch because other than the names, and some settings there really isn’t a lot of Egyptian content in the story. The story definitely has a distinctly mystery and case solving feel like those of Sherlock Holmes.
This was a different pace for me, but an enjoyable one. What I liked the most was the vocabulary and sentence structure with which the two main characters spoke and the majority of the book was written in. It has the feel of the older English writing with touches of modern writing intermingled. I definitely loved seeing words like vociferously, unconscionable, deferentially, and similarly less commonly used words used so abundantly throughout the text. It made my little logophile heart so happy.
There were a couple of things that dinged this book for me. The first being the extent to which the “silliness” of our main characters went. For the first three fourths of the book I had a hard time believing the two were capable of being able to do much of anything, let alone solve a mystery/case.The second thing I had a hard time with was deciphering who the intended audience for this book is. It has the air and feel of a children’s book (the silliness and downplaying of normally serious events to a point of being more comical) but not only is some of the content not entirely great for children (crocodiles eating people from a village that got flooded, for example) but the vocabulary makes this a higher reading level than is normal for a children’s book. So I am confused about who this book is for. I’m not saying an adult cannot entertain the silliness, and carefree feel of this book, I am merely saying it was unusual and therefore slightly off putting for me. While I am a lover for farfetched and fantastical stories, I do prefer that there be some believability to the world or realm that the story takes place in. This one was just shy of that for me.
All that being said, I did enjoy this quick read. I think keeping the main characters more perceptive with their wits about them can make all the difference in how the next book in the series will be perceived. If your looking for a lighthearted, quick detective story read then this is definitely one to consider.
Full review: wanderinglectiophile.wordpress.com/2017/11/13/review-barnabas-tew-and-the-case-of-the-missing-scarab-by-columbkill-noonan/
This was a different pace for me, but an enjoyable one. What I liked the most was the vocabulary and sentence structure with which the two main characters spoke and the majority of the book was written in. It has the feel of the older English writing with touches of modern writing intermingled. I definitely loved seeing words like vociferously, unconscionable, deferentially, and similarly less commonly used words used so abundantly throughout the text. It made my little logophile heart so happy.
There were a couple of things that dinged this book for me. The first being the extent to which the “silliness” of our main characters went. For the first three fourths of the book I had a hard time believing the two were capable of being able to do much of anything, let alone solve a mystery/case.The second thing I had a hard time with was deciphering who the intended audience for this book is. It has the air and feel of a children’s book (the silliness and downplaying of normally serious events to a point of being more comical) but not only is some of the content not entirely great for children (crocodiles eating people from a village that got flooded, for example) but the vocabulary makes this a higher reading level than is normal for a children’s book. So I am confused about who this book is for. I’m not saying an adult cannot entertain the silliness, and carefree feel of this book, I am merely saying it was unusual and therefore slightly off putting for me. While I am a lover for farfetched and fantastical stories, I do prefer that there be some believability to the world or realm that the story takes place in. This one was just shy of that for me.
All that being said, I did enjoy this quick read. I think keeping the main characters more perceptive with their wits about them can make all the difference in how the next book in the series will be perceived. If your looking for a lighthearted, quick detective story read then this is definitely one to consider.
Full review: wanderinglectiophile.wordpress.com/2017/11/13/review-barnabas-tew-and-the-case-of-the-missing-scarab-by-columbkill-noonan/