A review by sarahrara
The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths
3.0
I adored the setting of this book and quite liked the characters as well, though unfortunately the central narrative didn't really grab me. I haven't read a lot of crime fiction dealing with digging up bones of past crimes, so I'm not sure if part of the reason it didn't grab me is because within the frame of the narrative it also happened so long ago, but I don't think that was it.
Minor spoiler: this story deals with a war crime from WWII (this becomes apparent relatively early on, so I don't feel as if it's a big reveal), and while I agree that what happened was wrong, I just didn't care all that much. The focus is on the characters alive in the present day story and then it becomes hard to invest in people who died 60+ years ago who we don't know anything about. It's true that crimes also happened in the present day storyline, but again I felt quite disconnected from the victims.
Also, this is the third book in the series and I haven't read the previous two, but I don't think that posed a big issue. There were things alluded to in the past, but it didn't seem as though I was missing any vital information. Though I am quite intrigued to know what happened with Erik and wonder if this is the premise of book one or two. While I'm on the subject, sauna is in fact not a typical Norwegian thing and I've only once in my life taken a sauna and run out into the snow after - it's more of a Finnish thing (but that's nitpicking - it's not like no Norwegians use saunas).
I loved Cathbad, and also liked Ruth and Nelson and I found their relationship believable and interesting. I could also sympathise with Ruth's struggle to be a working single mum and her guilt over not spending enough time with her child. What I found less believable was other characters judging her for not spending enough time with her baby - it's not like she was avoiding Kate or was a bad parent, though I can understand her feeling that way herself.
The who and the why of the mystery was OK but not great. I'm also very much over the whole "villain holds person hostage while confessing every detail of their evil plan" trope. And I feel like I missed something towards the end because
The narration was fine, though it felt as if whenever she did an accent it came out vaguely Russian - even the Irish ones seemed to have something Russian to them. And I am baffled as to why she chose to pronounce the name Irene as rhyming with martini.
I would be interested in reading more books in the series as there was enough in the characters, setting and premise (archaeologist helping the police) to warrant further reading.
Minor spoiler: this story deals with a war crime from WWII (this becomes apparent relatively early on, so I don't feel as if it's a big reveal), and while I agree that what happened was wrong, I just didn't care all that much. The focus is on the characters alive in the present day story and then it becomes hard to invest in people who died 60+ years ago who we don't know anything about. It's true that crimes also happened in the present day storyline, but again I felt quite disconnected from the victims.
Also, this is the third book in the series and I haven't read the previous two, but I don't think that posed a big issue. There were things alluded to in the past, but it didn't seem as though I was missing any vital information. Though I am quite intrigued to know what happened with Erik and wonder if this is the premise of book one or two. While I'm on the subject, sauna is in fact not a typical Norwegian thing and I've only once in my life taken a sauna and run out into the snow after - it's more of a Finnish thing (but that's nitpicking - it's not like no Norwegians use saunas).
I loved Cathbad, and also liked Ruth and Nelson and I found their relationship believable and interesting. I could also sympathise with Ruth's struggle to be a working single mum and her guilt over not spending enough time with her child. What I found less believable was other characters judging her for not spending enough time with her baby - it's not like she was avoiding Kate or was a bad parent, though I can understand her feeling that way herself.
The who and the why of the mystery was OK but not great. I'm also very much over the whole "villain holds person hostage while confessing every detail of their evil plan" trope. And I feel like I missed something towards the end because
Spoiler
it didn't make sense to me that the murderer would want/need to kill Ruth (and indeed say "go into this - I want to say - storage unit of some kind - or I will kill you" weren't they going to kill her anyway?...). She didn't have any unique information that for instance Nelson didn't also have.The narration was fine, though it felt as if whenever she did an accent it came out vaguely Russian - even the Irish ones seemed to have something Russian to them. And I am baffled as to why she chose to pronounce the name Irene as rhyming with martini.
I would be interested in reading more books in the series as there was enough in the characters, setting and premise (archaeologist helping the police) to warrant further reading.