2021 historical mystery; second in Baker's Anna Fairweather series
(1920s amateur detection). Mrs Montford, recuperating after the death
of her husband, takes Anna to Brighton, where Anna helps pull a
drowning woman out of the sea—too late, alas.
The writing is decent but the characters didn't really work for
me. There's a most obvious suspect for whom the only missing piece is
motivation; but more seriously, Anna keeps quailing at the prospect of
doing some detection (Mrs Montford gives her an implausible amount of
latitude for a lady's maid, even inviting her to join her and a friend
at dinner in the hotel, but at the same time discourages her from
getting involved). I mean, yes, criminals have to be caught, but the
best detective stories show the detectives getting some pleasure from
the process of out-thinking the villain, even if (as in Peter Wimsey's
case) it's not unmixed.
Instead, we get something of a grim and dismal tone, with Anna
terrified of the danger she's putting herself in, but continuing to do
so because…? Well, because she's the series heroine, but she seems to
have no diegetic reason to keep getting involved with these people
whom she really doesn't much like.
A bit of a mixed bag, but I'll try one more in the series.
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