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A review by leandrathetbrzero
Villainy in Vienna by Kelly Oliver
Did not finish book. Stopped at 70%.
As the first world war rages on, British spy Fiona Figg has been sent to Vienna in the hopes of tailing the ever-elusive Black Panther, Fredrick Fredricks, before he can assassinate his next target. The catch? He invited her to follow him…Trap or not, she will soon find out.
I received an e-book copy of this title via NetGalley, and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised upon beginning it. First off, I did not read books 1 or 2 in the series prior to reading Villainy in Vienna, but I never felt deterred by that. In fact, the few necessary details provided by Oliver left me intrigued and wanting to go back and read the earlier publications rather than feeling alienated or left out of the loop. Friends know this about me: I am very weary of modern cozies that give the amateur detective/spy a first-person narration. Usually, I find the narrators too artificially “quirky” with a forced humor and personality. Another reason I steer clear of first-person detective POVS is because the author’s effort to keep clues from me but not from the detective…while I am literally in the detective’s head…is quite annoying. With all of that said, I really like Fiona Figg, the amateur spy and narrator in Villainy in Vienna. I didn’t find her internal monologue overbearing like I usually would, and I believe the setting helped with that. Golden Age detective fiction has a reserved air around it, and I believe Oliver blends this quality nicely into the narration as the book is set in Vienna during World War I.
Speaking of the setting, I liked how Oliver immerses her readers into the Viennese culture and the war-time politics and paranoia. The atmosphere felt authentic and intriguing. It made me want a Viennese coffee badly! I am also now dying to attend a masquerade ball…perhaps “dying” is the wrong word choice. Speaking of, I appreciated the variety in mysteries that Oliver includes within the narrative. We have the overarching plot that involves espionage and assassination attempts, but also smaller mysteries involving a dognapping, a stolen notebook, and a trolley accident.
A few aspects of the book that made me like it but not love it include the slow pace of the novel. The beginning felt well-paced and packed with mysterious incidents, but with the many times Fiona plans to investigate, there seems to be very few victories in gathering necessary information until two-thirds of the way through the book. I also found my deductive skills outdid that of Fiona in a few instances where I caught on to things a few pages before she did.
I ended up DNFing this book at the 70% mark because with these criticisms and the above love notes, I knew pretty early on that I would give this book 3 stars...so taking the advice of YouTuber With Cindy, I didn't see the point in finishing the book if my rating was likely not going to change by the end.
I ended up DNFing this book at the 70% mark because with these criticisms and the above love notes, I knew pretty early on that I would give this book 3 stars...so taking the advice of YouTuber With Cindy, I didn't see the point in finishing the book if my rating was likely not going to change by the end.