Review: Awesome writing for a very enjoyable mystery
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 5, 2011
Peter, you're one of my new favorites!First word that comes to my mind: comfortable. I like when I feel I am slipping into the mind of a character and I feel at ease there. It has happened to me a few blessed times with first-person narrators, like Adrien (English) or Vic (Psycops), but I think it's a first for me to experience this kind of involvement with a third-person narration. It was as if the barrier of the page didn't exist and I could get behind it and stand close to Peter, the main character.Peter is a reporter. He is looking for pieces of information to write an investigative article, when he stumbles upon a murder. On the crime scene, next to the dying woman, there's Nick, a local artist, to whom Peter is very attracted.The investigation doesn't carry a lot of angst or action, but it takes the reader close to artist community of the city of Bellingham, which is a protagonist of the story as much as the characters in flesh and bones. Even if Bellingham seemes a cozy place to live where nothing ever happens, there are shady businesses and love affairs going on, and they become entangled as the artistic threads spinned by three of the secondary characters.Peter should investigate Nick too and to get closer to the recluded man, who doesn't want people to meddle with his life, he invites him on a date and it's here that I adored Peter and his attitude. He is younger than Nick, he is not as rich, he is smart, but probably not as sophisticated, but he is also open and outgoing in a way that his love interest is not. Peter is not bossy, but he takes charge, and I loved how he was able to reach out to Nick and build the bridge that brought them together.Nick is not as fleshed out as Peter, but I think it depends on the fact that not even Peter knows him very much. Nick guards his life with fierceness, I would say, but it was sweet to read how he lets himself be conquered and seduced by the younger man.The writing is awesome. In a paragraph the author can give you all the information you need to build an image of the surroundings, or of a person. Or a cat, like Tripod, the three-legged cat who rules the neighborhood with an iron paw. This story is not dark or troubled, so if you're looking for a heavier type of mystery it might not be the book for you, but it was true and pure high quality enjoyment.