(Blake Hartley Mysteries #1)
by John Waddington-Feather
Yes - here is another 1st free ebook in a series, to captrue readers' interest in reading (and buying) more.
And although I mostly liked the book, I did not enjoy it enough to start buying the series.
Blake Hartley is an unusual detective because apart from being in the police force, he is also a man of the cloth.
It means that he has a bit of a different approach to his enquiries, and sometimes his vocation presents an advantage.
As a character, he comes across both credibly and likeably enough.
The case: A rich elderly woman is murdered in her manor. She was the only remaining person in the big house, with a nephew not far away and two staff living in the grounds.
Soon, a short list of suspects is followed up by Hartley and his assistant, but are there sufficient motive, means and opportunity for one of them to have actually done it?
What do dodgy antique dealers, name-dropping golf players and a big drug operation have to do with the old lady?
And how do a beautiful woman and Hartley's own boss enter the picture?
Of course, the mystery is solved in the end. Evil does not prevail, but still Hartley can not feel entirely happy afterwards.
As I said, I liked the book well enough. What I did not like was the sometimes rather black and white portrayal of certain characters, and I definitely did NOT enjoy the description of the beautiful woman. I am not averse to a compliment myself and am as susceptible to attractive looking people as most folks, but said description came across quite sexist, I thought.
Nevertheless, I have two more books of the series on my Kindle (both were free, too) and I am going to read them as well.
They were entertaining enough, and some of Hartley's thoughts were rather interesting to follow.
A few months ago, I read my first book by this author; you can find my review here. (There is also a link to more info about the author in that post.) That book was, in my opinion, better written and I enjoyed it more.
No comments:
Post a Comment