Reviews and Comments

The best parts of this book are just as good as the first in the series, but it just took far too long to get going for my liking. The buildup to the eponymous death does give a great exploration of all the characters involved, but takes half the book. The second half – the actual solving of the murder and revelation of the killer – is what I came for.

The almighty algorithm recommended this to me after I enjoyed the first few entries in the Thursday Murder Club series, and while it wasn't quite as good as those it was very enjoyable and I'm glad it was identified for me. This is the first of what I believe will eventually be a trilogy, and I'll at least be reading part two.

In many ways this book is more polished than the first installment, but the plot here was just a little bit too outlandish for me to truly immerse myself. Still an enjoyable read though, and I will for sure be reading the next in the series.

Unsurprisingly given its author, this is a book that takes great delight in its use of language. If you can't also delight in that then I'm not sure the story would be quite enough to keep you engaged: it moves forward very slowly at first and while it does pick up some steam toward the end, the ending itself is predictable. Happily I did find it quite enjoyable and although I'd have been happier if it were 20% shorter, I'd read a follow-up if there is one.

The revelation at the end of the book was just barely good enough to have made the read to get there worth it, although some parts really felt like a chore to get through and if this were a longer book I don't think I'd have bothered. Not my favourite.

This was a more fun read than I was expecting, with plenty of Bob Mortimer's absurdist humour sprinkled throughout as you'd expect.