Tuesday, December 06, 2016

Cornish Coast Murder

Cornish Coast Murder. John Bude. 1935. 288 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: The Reverend Dodd, Vicar of St. Micahel's-on-the-Cliff, stood at the window of his comfortable bachelor study looking out into the night.

Premise/plot: This vintage mystery stars several amateur detectives (a vicar and a doctor) and several professional detectives (police inspectors). The novel was easy to follow, but, is proving hard to remember--in terms of character names. The murder happens early in the novel. A stormy night is JUST what this murderer has been waiting for. He--or SHE--is able to fire THREE shots with hardly anyone being the wiser for it. There seem to be THOUSANDS of clues, but, contradictory, almost absurd or outlandish clues that instead of leading to a cohesive story lead to a dozen "maybe" stories. Who will be the first to solve this one?

My thoughts: I liked this one. Would I have loved it if I'd read it in two or three days instead of two or three weeks? Maybe. Maybe not. If this one has a weakness, it is that the solution isn't one that readers are ever, ever, ever going to be able to piece together on their own. I'm not sure that qualifies as a weakness. It's just that with so many suspects, so many clues, so many motives...the actual murderer seems to come out of nowhere. I personally like to be able to say, OH, I SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO FIGURE THAT ONE OUT.

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

1 comment:

Joy Weese Moll said...

I never figure out the mysteries, so I always assume the problem is me and not the book.