Review: Waste of Time
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 18, 2014
2.5 starsI had not read any of the other Rafferty & Llewellyn books before reading Death Dues, and having finished this one, I will not be reading any more of them. Describing this book as a "procedural" gives it entirely too much credit; rather, it is a repetitive round of witness interviews conducted by flat characters, interspersed with irrelevant and faintly misogynistic episodes relating to Rafferty's impending marriage. Given that this is the eleventh book in the series, I expected the main characters, and their relationship, to be well-developed; to the contrary, the interactions between Rafferty and Llewellyn are superficial, with no explanation as to why Llewellyn would tolerate Rafferty's taking advantage of him (to make tea, to print wedding invitations, etc.)In some books, weak and uninteresting characters are at least partially offset by an intriguing crime with well-placed clues. Unfortunately, neither the crimes Rafferty and Llewellyn are "investigating," nor their resolution, was sufficient to redeem Death Dues. Readers looking for well-written British police procedurals with strong characters and fascinating mysteries, written by female authors,  should consider the works of Val McDermid or Mo Hayder instead.I received a free copy of Death Dues from Story Cartel in exchange for an honest review.