Review: The Accent is Shaky but the book is readable
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 5, 2013
As an authentic British mystery, this work missed by not quite a mile. In fact,  it reminded me a bit of an Agatha Christie play put on by a semi-pro or amateur cast from Grand Rapids or some other Michigan community. The worst of all  possible disasters occurred  near the end of the first act when the Inspector walked in and delivered 7 minutes of dialog having nothing to do with the action that preceded or followed it. The audience was bewildered, the cast heroic, as they stumbled through with no-doubt invented lines trying to adjust to the Inspectors forcefully delivered words. Enlightenment burst upon the audience some time later as the play  reached its defining moments, the unveiling of the killer and elucidation of the evidence which led to that conclusion: of course, you got it in one, the Inspector comes on and delivers the same lines he had spoken in the first act.The author here makes no such blunder nor does she do a poor job overall. It is simply that it reads more like Philo Vance invited to a suburban village just north of NYC than it does Lord Peter Wimsey visiting his older brother at the ancestral home.So on the negative side, I would put a seemingly forced conversational tone and behavioral style not bearing the stamp of  verisimilitude.  The plotting and character interactions are also marked by a certain degree of artificiality and forced bonhomie among the class levels which interact on stage.On the positive side, it is a decent cozy mystery, which did hold my interest throughout. The author did create the nucleus of a cast which should work out well as additional titles are added to the series. I can recommend the book to readers of The Cozy, who should find it an  acceptable first viewing of that series.  It is not written with the reader in mind who prefers mysteries down and dirty or  more realistic plotting and situations.