Reginald Belcik and the Mystery of the Diamonds

by Roger Blieck

Retired engineer and widower Reginald lives alone in a nice apartment complex.

When he receives an unexpected visit from the president of the resident’s association, he’s suddenly asked to take over as building manager. The reason? The young lady that he will inherit the position from has recently been murdered.

Reginald accepts the position – and the keys – to begin his new responsibilities, and it’s then that he discovers a shoebox full of diamonds.

Entangled in the mystery of the woman’s death, and falling fast for her mother, Reginald digs for answers… but this plot goes deeper than even he could anticipate.

• ISBN10: 1914471954
• ISBN13: 9781914471957
• Publish Date: 28 June 2022
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: The Book Guild Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 312
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Reginald Belcik and the Mystery of the Diamonds is a standalone cozy mystery by Roger Blieck featuring a widowed retired engineer thrust by circumstance into the role of amateur sleuth when he stumbles across a shoebox containing diamonds in his new role as building supervisor. Released 22nd June 2022 by The Book Guild, it's 314 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. 

The bones of a very good mystery, entertainingly told, are here. The author has a quirky humorous style of writing and an appealingly wonky view of the world which adds warmth and style to his storytelling. The writing, however, is rough, and it very much reads like he translated it himself with the assistance of Google translate from (presumably) Dutch to English with possibly an intermediary step to Swahili. There are idioms throughout which either are oddly translated or just don't have a good equivalent in English. 

Here's a random quote: 

 

Faced with such tragedies, we can look at everything through a telescope, but from the lens to the eyepiece. Everything becomes very small. The pile on the table too?

They left, relieved of a problem, which is not one for those who know what is there in the big package of documents.

I return to my chair and contemplate my table, full of files. I can leave it like this, without touching it. I have no obligation to touch it…

It isn't ideal that it's written in first person present tense throughout (though I admire the author's gumption - quite a lot). It's also full of stacatto bursts of dialogue, scattered sentence fragments, and broken idiomatic phrases. 

That being said, it is an entertaining and well constructed mystery. Readers who read a lot of literature in translation or aren't overly daunted by reading in the original language aided by a translating dictionary will enjoy the mystery for its own sake. The book would have benefited greatly by a thorough editing process -or- having been written in the author's native Dutch and -then- being translated to English. Whatever the process, it's clearly not written fluently. Eagle eyed readers will have cottoned onto the fact that the author himself is a retired engineer who was also a building supervisor and whose surname bears an uncanny resemblance to the hero in the story.

Four strong stars for the actual mystery, two for the writing itself. It's a nice attempt and a disappointing execution. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.