A review by starryeved
The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith
2.0
A debut in the so-termed Scandinavian Blanc genre/subgenre. I'm sure Alexander McCall Smith is a titan in the detective agency-writing subsection of popular literature now, but even with the appealing title and premise, this fell a little flat.
Unfortunately, the quiet, ponderous writing style didn't work for me. As someone with a short attention span, what I want out of a novel—especially a mystery—is something exciting and entertaining. Even if the content is supposedly small or insignificant, as they are here—"sensitive" crimes including a disappearing imaginary boyfriend, a perplexing stab to the back of the knee—there are ways to make them appealing, entertaining.
For one, you could make the characters intriguing. Or, you could vary up your writing style. Tone up the urgency. Spice up the atmosphere and mood. Add to the intrigue.
Basically, there are a whole number of things to make a bizarre story good, but McCall Smith did none of them.
I started this a very long time ago, and then gave up near the beginning. Only till now did I finally decide to give it another go. And... I would try and give this another chance, but that'll have to come at a later date. Much later.
ARC from Penguin Random House, courtesy of NetGalley.
Unfortunately, the quiet, ponderous writing style didn't work for me. As someone with a short attention span, what I want out of a novel—especially a mystery—is something exciting and entertaining. Even if the content is supposedly small or insignificant, as they are here—"sensitive" crimes including a disappearing imaginary boyfriend, a perplexing stab to the back of the knee—there are ways to make them appealing, entertaining.
For one, you could make the characters intriguing. Or, you could vary up your writing style. Tone up the urgency. Spice up the atmosphere and mood. Add to the intrigue.
Basically, there are a whole number of things to make a bizarre story good, but McCall Smith did none of them.
I started this a very long time ago, and then gave up near the beginning. Only till now did I finally decide to give it another go. And... I would try and give this another chance, but that'll have to come at a later date. Much later.
ARC from Penguin Random House, courtesy of NetGalley.