Reviewed by Charli G. on
A Beautiful Blue Death is not a beautiful book. In fact, the book is so un-beautiful, that I couldn't even finish it. Allow me to explain.
The book is set in the 1800s. That doesn't bother me so much. It's also set in London, again, not something that bothers me particularly. The main character, Charles Lenox is an amateur detective who just happens to be a boring sort of fellow. One of the other characters, George Barnard is such an obnoxious jerk, you can't help but hate him. I suppose that's a good thing, since there always seems to be at least one character the reader just can't stand.
The main problem with this book is it moves far too slowly. I got to Chapter 19 and the investigation had barely begun. Lenox had only spoken to two or three suspects, had made a trip to a couple of apothecaries, and sent his butler to do some investigating for him. Other than that, he's had quite a bit of tea and food.
This book has literally no action. There are no "uh oh" moments - at least not in the first 18 chapters. But if there isn't any action by the 40% mark of a book, I can guess that action is not going to be forthcoming. I honestly wonder how it became an Agatha Award Nominee, considering I used to devour Agatha Christie books in a day and there was far more action in those books than in this one. They were much more interesting too.
One star for this book and that's being generous.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 24 September, 2015: Finished reading
- 24 September, 2015: Reviewed