2025 romantic mystery. To keep Ravensea Castle in the family, the
latest generation have built part of it out into a bed and breakfast,
in spite of some local opposition. The first guests are about to
arrive, and people will soon start dying…
This is a very cosy mystery. Three new relationships start in
the course of this short novel, one of them of course the narrator's;
but also it fits neatly into the standard template, a single woman
running a small business who happens to stumble over dead bodies.
Nora was planning to be one of two people keeping this place going,
along with Janet the faithful family retainer and super-cook. Yes, all
right, there are only three guest rooms to clean, but she's also
supposedly doing all the gathering and manufacturing (and deliveries
across Yorkshire) for her herbal products business…
And her surname is Asquith. I'm sure there are Asquiths in Yorkshire
but it just feels wrong. (We're nowhere near the parish of Askwith,
but rather on the coast.)
Of course there are the usual Americanisms from an author who "arly
years in England and France" but clearly feels no need to do research.
A van being driven aggressively "blew through a stop sign", which,
yes, we do have in England, but they're extremely rare. Someone asking
for beer is offered "bitter or ale". On a tricky bit of road, Nora
"had to slow to thirty kilometers per hour". The adjacent small town
supports a pub, an ice cream shop and a fancy lingerie and herbal
products shop, but "the only places to get wine are the chain grocery
and the general store".
This sort of thing could be fixed in a few moments, with one
pre-publication reader who knew anything of the UK even if the author
doesn't know what she doesn't know; hey ho.
Back in the plot, there is past murder, there are hidden
relationships, and the various relationships and motivations didn't
really add up for me: for example, N pnfhnyyl xvyyrq O nf cneg bs
trggvat evq bs P naq znqr vg ybbx yvxr na nppvqrag, naq yngre O'f
fvoyvat Q qebcf qnex uvagf gb sevraqf gung gur qrnguf jre abg
nppvqragny ohg vf fgvyy unccl gb jbex sbe naq fyrrc jvgu N. Each
individual bit works, it's just when one puts them together that I
find myself saying "hang on a minute…"
The moment-to-moment writing isn't bad at all, but I never found
myself enthused and I shall not seek out more by this author.