Dubious

[vgqn]

Should I keep reading this book*? So far, the protagonist has complained that taxi cab drivers in London no longer speak the queen's English, because her driver didn't have the Cockney accent she expected. Then she went to a restaurant and ordered steak frite, singular (M's comment is that she must be on a diet, "Just one fry, please"). It's only page 9, and that just a couple of examples.

Otoh, the International Mental and Neurological University Therapists Society convention (IMNUTS) made me laugh.

Yeah, okay, even that's pretty dire. Into the giveaway box it goes. Why are so many mysteries so badly written?

*Auntie Mayhem, Mary Daheim.

Comments

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Or are seriously flawed in other ways. One of my pet peeves is otherwise well-written historical mysteries in which all the characters (except the villains, usually) have most of the attitudes characteristic of admirably-sensitive people in the 21st Century.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

I agree, although if the book is otherwise well written, I'm more likely to forgive that than the cardboard characters, silly gimmicks, and flabby writing that are the sad norm.

Have you read the series by Colin Cotterill that starts with The Coroner's Lunch, set in Laos? One could accuse it of being gimmicky too (an elderly doctor in Communist Laos turned unwilling coroner then unwilling shaman) with a smart young nurse and a Down Syndrome man as his assistants. But I'm finding them fascinating and well written. Others that I like are Tony Hillerman, Donna Leon, and sometimes Walter Mosley (they get too violent for my taste sometimes).

Have any recommendations?