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reviews_and_ramblings And the Rainbow Award goes to:
Shadow of Justice by Jess Faraday:
- These long short stories, pieced together to create a novel, start off strong and remain consistently engaging. Faraday has a strong command of language and is a solid storyteller. The atmosphere feels authentically Victorian, despite a possible anachronism or two. For instance, one of the stories has a character menaced by a perceived vampire, but the novel is set ten years before Bram Stoker’s “Dracula was published. Undoubtedly, there were popular Victorian legends before that, but it would have helped if the main character could have referred to one so the reader isn’t left wondering. After all, the character talks of Wilkie Collins and Edgar Allan Poe. A couple of the stories end with a limp last couple of lines, disappointing since the stories themselves are consistently riveting. In one story, the story shifts too quickly from Pearce being thoroughly focused on a missing dog to three sentences later forgetting the dog and tracking down a possible curse. The abrupt shift is jarring. And finally, in Scotland, Pearce and Cal have a falling out that in real life would be all but impossible to overcome. I’m all for misunderstandings and mistakes and character imperfections, but I greatly dislike when an author makes their main character do something unreasonable and unforgiveable for no apparent reason other than to create “conflict in the story or relationship. Still, all that said, I found the book beautifully written. It’s accessible and comfortable and thoroughly compelling despite its mostly minor flaws. The breakup with Theo is handled with maturity and pathos. And, spoiler alert, the reunion of Cal and Pearce is lovely. Jess Faraday is an author I will be following.
- While technically an anthology, this book could also be viewed as a novel with eight longish chapters. Each short story is a murder-mystery, complete in itself, but with the same detective main character throughout. The plot of each mystery is intricate and intriguing, and kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat! I mention the novel view because the development of the main character is an arc that spans the eight stories, and we intimately see and feel his growth as he struggles with forces both external and internal. The secondary characters are also drawn with depths that make them vividly real. And speaking of reality, the author's attention to setting drew me in to the point I felt I was actually walking around in 19th-century London, Cornwall, and Edinburgh! I had not heard of this author before, but there's no question: I will read her entire backlist as time allows.
- I had not read anything by this author before and I don't usually like collections of shorter stories. I also don't often read historical fiction, but I do like it, when it is well-written! This story was! The style of writing, the perfectly crafted and authentic setting and the complex characters really drew me into their ban. While this book is a collection of stories, there is a red line that leads through these stories, a romance that felt interesting and realistic with a lot of chemistry. The mysteries were very different, some very easy to solve, some impossible to solve, but always kept my interest. I loved and devoured these stories and am happy to have found a master wordsmith in this new-to-me author. I will need to check out her other works, too.
Runner Up:
The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater
Shadow of Justice by Jess Faraday:- These long short stories, pieced together to create a novel, start off strong and remain consistently engaging. Faraday has a strong command of language and is a solid storyteller. The atmosphere feels authentically Victorian, despite a possible anachronism or two. For instance, one of the stories has a character menaced by a perceived vampire, but the novel is set ten years before Bram Stoker’s “Dracula was published. Undoubtedly, there were popular Victorian legends before that, but it would have helped if the main character could have referred to one so the reader isn’t left wondering. After all, the character talks of Wilkie Collins and Edgar Allan Poe. A couple of the stories end with a limp last couple of lines, disappointing since the stories themselves are consistently riveting. In one story, the story shifts too quickly from Pearce being thoroughly focused on a missing dog to three sentences later forgetting the dog and tracking down a possible curse. The abrupt shift is jarring. And finally, in Scotland, Pearce and Cal have a falling out that in real life would be all but impossible to overcome. I’m all for misunderstandings and mistakes and character imperfections, but I greatly dislike when an author makes their main character do something unreasonable and unforgiveable for no apparent reason other than to create “conflict in the story or relationship. Still, all that said, I found the book beautifully written. It’s accessible and comfortable and thoroughly compelling despite its mostly minor flaws. The breakup with Theo is handled with maturity and pathos. And, spoiler alert, the reunion of Cal and Pearce is lovely. Jess Faraday is an author I will be following.
- While technically an anthology, this book could also be viewed as a novel with eight longish chapters. Each short story is a murder-mystery, complete in itself, but with the same detective main character throughout. The plot of each mystery is intricate and intriguing, and kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat! I mention the novel view because the development of the main character is an arc that spans the eight stories, and we intimately see and feel his growth as he struggles with forces both external and internal. The secondary characters are also drawn with depths that make them vividly real. And speaking of reality, the author's attention to setting drew me in to the point I felt I was actually walking around in 19th-century London, Cornwall, and Edinburgh! I had not heard of this author before, but there's no question: I will read her entire backlist as time allows.
- I had not read anything by this author before and I don't usually like collections of shorter stories. I also don't often read historical fiction, but I do like it, when it is well-written! This story was! The style of writing, the perfectly crafted and authentic setting and the complex characters really drew me into their ban. While this book is a collection of stories, there is a red line that leads through these stories, a romance that felt interesting and realistic with a lot of chemistry. The mysteries were very different, some very easy to solve, some impossible to solve, but always kept my interest. I loved and devoured these stories and am happy to have found a master wordsmith in this new-to-me author. I will need to check out her other works, too.
Runner Up:
The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater
