Review: This needs some tinkering... I think
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 3, 2014
First, being on amazon's book list is, in and of itself, an achievement for any writer.As to the short story itself, I believe I needs some looking into.One gets the impressions that there is only one character playing all theroles; and the characters sound more like present day tv series Americans than post-war upper class English ("how are you...  I'm good", "you're fired", the butler referred to by given name, etc). Many of the scenes are hardly plausible - such as, the murdered woman's son appears after 20? Years at his mother's kitchen step and, dispensing with introductions and sundry, proceeds to engage upon a half-baked shouting match with said mother; the inspector happily invites a member of the public to accompany him in his "interrogations"; the latter are rather farcical-- short of "did you kill her? No. Ok thank you". The clues, such as they are (not) do not lead anywhere, let alone to the brilliant denouement of lady Marm-- but that wouldn't matter much if we had plausible characters rather one person playing many skin-deep roles. On the other hand, placing a Mountbatten in the story is, admittedly, a fun touch (although it's unclear which one it is -- the Earl perhaps?)I do not know how old the writer is, although the style (short sentences, simple sentence structure) would indicate someone very young; if that is the case, kudos to our young writer, he may yet become a new Agatha one day!If it is an adult, the style, the setting, and the characters need some tinkering.