Joséphine
Written on Feb 25, 2015
Initial thoughts:I generally enjoyed reading Vendetta and will likely pick up the sequel when it releases next year. Sadly, I had a couple of gripes that were too major for me to overlook.
Firstly, Persephone, better known as Sophie. She was such a dense protagonist! How does it take two years to finally read up the news on whom her father had accidentally killed? Not when the victim was part of the Mafia. That kind of news doesn't just slip by the daughter of a man convicted of manslaughter. That put a huge dent in the plot for me. Funny thing is, she thought someone else was naïve.
Secondly, twists are crucial to mystery novels. The twists were pretty basic. Nothing major really happened, except for the expected mystery tropes.
At the end of the day, I'd recommend it more for the romance than the mystery. The writing style's much better suited for that. I think what made Vendetta so readable despite the general underdevelopment was the prose. For that, I'll surely look out for books Catherine Doyle publishes in future.