*** Warning: This review contains spoilers!! I don't give away the murderer, but my thoughts could serve as hints. ***
At first I thought I'd give this book 2 stars, but towards the end I enjoyed it more like 4 stars, so I settled on a 3-star average.
I don't generally read mysteries, but I am a huge fan of the British TV show Midsomer Murders starring John Nettles. (I haven't gotten used to Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby being replaced by his cousin John Barnaby.) I picked up this book only because of its connection to the show. I would have preferred to start with the first book in the series, but this one - the last in the series - was the only one available at my library when I looked.
The author's strength is in her character-building. The first third of the book was pretty slow-going, nothing really happening and a lot of characters being fleshed out. Like the TV show, there were a couple characters who were unlikable and unpleasant right out of the gate. Surprisingly, a few characters I thought boring at first really grew on me, and eventually I rather liked them. There were even these two characters, one seemingly harmless and another who was downright loathsome, but in the end, the author had me feeling disgusted with the first and sympathetic towards the second! Notably, one of the things I enjoy most about the TV show is how the small, quaint English villages where the murders take place feel like characters in themselves, yet in this book, I never quite felt immersed in the village of Forbes Abbot.
Honestly, without the promise of DCI Barnaby and Detective Sergeant Troy, I might not have continued. In a 375-page book, the murder didn't happen until page 120, about 1/3 of the way through. Then I had to wait another 23 pages for Barnaby and Troy to finally appear. It wasn't until page 195 that something completely unexpected happened, the investigation finally started in earnest, and I actually felt drawn in.
As a fan of the TV series, I have to note that I was immediately disappointed that Troy in the book was a bit of an oaf, not just simply young and with much to learn, as he's depicted in the show. Barnaby, too, was disappointingly more gruff than his TV counterpart.
I did enjoy picking up some new British words and phrases, which is something I enjoy about the TV show, too. Also, every now and then there's a bit humor that made me chuckle.
As far as the book's mystery goes, I think I've been too influenced by TV shows in which there is always a dramatic twist. Without any expectations, I would have suspected character A to be the murderer, based on their backstory. But that would be too easy. Character B felt like a red herring. I thus suspected character C, a minor character with motive and opportunity. In the end, I was somewhat disappointed when character A turned out to be the murderer. But! There was a satisfying twist after all, when character A was revealed to be in cahoots with character D, which I hadn't guessed at all.
I enjoyed the final section labeled "Afterwards". It was nice to see what became of everyone, and all the loose ends were tied up, including some ends I didn't even think needed tying. Not sure how I feel about the developments related to the child Karen, though. I really just wanted her to have a simple, happy life with Roy and the Crudges. The supernatural bit felt out of place and decidedly un-Barnaby-like.
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