The Last Good Name Left (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} thelastgoodname) wrote,@ 2008-07-26 12:36:00 |
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Books 2008
30. A Shilling for Candles, by Josephine Tey
I really liked the first Tey I read, because I adored Robert and Marion and Mrs. Sharpe and even Nevil. This one, not so much. In fact, this one, hardly at all. The characters were mostly uninteresting, and plot moved slowly, and altogether, I wasn't impressed. This might have been because the dead woman didn't interest me -- the brother would have, considering he's the one the title came from, but then he didn't turn out to be that important at all, so nothing doing. Alas.
And I kind of got the feeling Tey was employing Agatha Christie's much-loved approach: write until you reach the end, choose the least likely culprit, and change the rest of the book so it's not completely out of the blue for the reader.
31. The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey
Better than A Shilling for Candles, not at good as The Franchise Affair.
Grant is fine, just not overly my type. And the style and pacing was great, except that I'm not really interested in the Wars of the Roses or the Tudors -- I'm a Stuart kind of girl (although not the Jacobites; it's the transition from monarchy to constitutional monarchy I'm interested in).
I do want to read more about Richard, though, since I've always been interested in how history is made.
(And holy heck, they just don't have very many names, those royals, do they! Edward this and Edward that, Richard and his nephew Richard and his son Richard and his cousin Richard and oh yes, his son Edward. Somebody get those people a baby name book.)
30. A Shilling for Candles, by Josephine Tey
I really liked the first Tey I read, because I adored Robert and Marion and Mrs. Sharpe and even Nevil. This one, not so much. In fact, this one, hardly at all. The characters were mostly uninteresting, and plot moved slowly, and altogether, I wasn't impressed. This might have been because the dead woman didn't interest me -- the brother would have, considering he's the one the title came from, but then he didn't turn out to be that important at all, so nothing doing. Alas.
And I kind of got the feeling Tey was employing Agatha Christie's much-loved approach: write until you reach the end, choose the least likely culprit, and change the rest of the book so it's not completely out of the blue for the reader.
31. The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey
Better than A Shilling for Candles, not at good as The Franchise Affair.
Grant is fine, just not overly my type. And the style and pacing was great, except that I'm not really interested in the Wars of the Roses or the Tudors -- I'm a Stuart kind of girl (although not the Jacobites; it's the transition from monarchy to constitutional monarchy I'm interested in).
I do want to read more about Richard, though, since I've always been interested in how history is made.
(And holy heck, they just don't have very many names, those royals, do they! Edward this and Edward that, Richard and his nephew Richard and his son Richard and his cousin Richard and oh yes, his son Edward. Somebody get those people a baby name book.)