Review: Clues To Murder, And To Lalla Bains
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 31, 2013
I enjoyed this book, my introduction to the Lalla Bains series. She is indeed, bright, opinionated, cantankerous and probably more fun to read about than to know. Her idiosyncracies do not distract in the least - they are credible and in keeping with the great amateur sleuth tradition. For all that, she is something of a mystery to her friends, and to her long suffering fiance! The writing is excellent and believable. It's hard to sustain a full novel written in the first person, but RP Dahlke has done this well. As a quibble, I doubt that Vietnamese Americans would have Chinese New Year souvenirs rather than Vietnamese for Tet, which should not be hard to find for that community. I guessed the villain (for the murder - there are serial villains lurking within these pages), but not the why, and the villain does not have a motivation that most readers could figure out. Still, a fine yarn with an entertaining protagonist - I look forward to more novels by the enterprising Ms. Dahlke!