A review by circularcubes
Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey

3.0

This book had far more horses than I expected going into it.

Spoiler

I am not the best at guessing murderers or motives in crime novels - I mostly read them for the fun of the unspooling of the thing, and even sometimes when I know the outcome, it's fun to see it play out on the page. However, with this book, it was very obvious who the murderer was, and his motive, and I knew what was coming even before it was hinted at in the book. Let me reiterate: I am very bad at guessing the who in whodunnits, and even I guessed at this one. I suppose that means that this book is less about the who and the why, and more about the feelings the characters all have towards each other, and a little bit of the how, as well. In that case, this book does have very fun family dynamics, between Brat falling for his supposed-sister (and Eleanor VERY awkwardly returning those feelings!), Simon knowing that Brat is an outsider and trying to quietly off him, Brat navigating all of these new dynamics, etc. etc. I just wish that we got to see more of Bee grapple with her beloved Simon being a murderer in that last chapter, since I felt that was quite glossed over.

All in all, not a bad crime novel, but three stars for between the obvious suspect/motive, the identical stranger trope (not my favorite), the unexpected abundance of horses.