Review: A decent STORY, but...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 20, 2013
The actual storyline for this book was quite well-done, and I had picked out a few 'wrong' characters to fill the role of First Murderer.  The writing style and the 'voice' of the characters, however, were not well-done.  I was left thinking that this was almost a parody of the classic British cozy genre.  The main character, Lord James Harrington, spoke with a 'voice' that was oddly flippant and just rang false.  For example, he meets someone for the first time, and within a couple of sentences he's calling her "Mrs K".  Would you do that to someone you just met?  I wouldn't...  And that's just one example.  I know that it was an upper-class affectation of the era to be very casual and what we'd now call 'flippant', but Lord James carries it to an extreme.The flippant tone also carries over to the author's descriptive writing.  Her choice of words (especially verbs), her descriptions of what Lord James is wearing, the descriptions of their meals - it all seems a bit over-the-top, which is what made the word 'parody' come to mind.The story itself is fairly typical cozy mystery set in a village, with the usual cast of characters - the amateur sleuth; the exasperated official investigator; the gossips; the pub owner; the victim, who turns out to have been a very unpleasant person, etc.  But, as I said, I think that the mystery itself and the role of First Murderer were quite well-done.  I just wish the tone of the book itself had been toned down (oops, sorry, PUN!).Note on Kindle formatting:  Good.  There were one or two minor typos, but nothing that would impact reading.