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Writer’s Diary – Book Review – The Case at Barton Manor

This is not so much a book review of the story written by Emily Queen, but more about what I, as an author, learned from reading it. To me, this fits more into a reader's diary, but I'm calling it a book review more to categorize it for my blog readers. The name of the book is The Case at Barton Manor , a 1920s Murder Mystery by Emily Queen.

This was a historical mystery, which is not my favorite genre, but I was sold by the cover, which pulled me in right away. I love this art form and the book just appealed to me. Although I'm not a historical fiction fan, I do love the fashions of the 1920s and I thought this would be a fun read.

As an author, it's also a confirmation of what every how-to-sell-books video has said: The book sales depend greatly on the covers and the story descriptions.

READABILITY:

I found the book a little harder to read because it was a historical mystery. It was harder than a contemporary mystery romance. I believe it is because the language was a bit more formal, which is an accurate reflection of the historical timeframe. I give the author A+ because the language was a good reflection of how much more formal people spoke back in the 1920s. I just noted, as a reader, that it did make it harder to read and took me longer to finish. I found myself having to reread certain parts to make sure I understood what was going on.

The only criticism I have about the book is that by around the 60% mark, I had to go back and make a written list of who everyone was and what role they played in the story. I'm not certain this was even about how the book was written. This may be just a reflection that my mind was wandering too much as I read this story. But I came away noting that maybe as an author, I need to mention the character's name and reference their job or something relevant about them and refer to this once or twice more, especially if they fall to the background during certain parts of the story.

This is not the first time that somewhere in the middle of the book I've had to go back and make a list of who everyone in the story is. I'm not easily discouraged as a reader, but many readers can be. When I read another author's book, I look for things that would stop a reader from reading and I believe getting mixed up as to who everyone is could be a reason to say 'forget it' and move onto the next book.

What I learned as I went back through the book to make my list is that the characters were mentioned by name and usually something about them that was noteworthy in the overall story. So there was no fault for that. But the characters would fall to the back of the story, so to speak, and then when they were mentioned again, I really had forgotten who they were. That's why by 60% through the story, I had about three characters I had completely forgotten who they were.

So my author's note is: When there are more than 3 or 4 characters, I would find a way to reference not only their names a second and third time, but reference something about them as a refresher to how they fit in the story. This sounds easy, right? But this is a fine line to walk as readers who have no trouble keeping track of multiple characters would find this technique repetitive. As I read other books, I will now notice how the authors handle characters who are introduced early on and then make a re-appearance later in the story. I know for sure that one quick mention of a character's name is not enough to implant it into the reader's mind. I'm sure this lesson will be helpful in my own work.

THE STORY ITSELF:

The Case at Barton Manor is classic who-done-it murder mystery. It made me think of Agatha Christie as I read it. So if you are a fan of that style of who-done-it, you will love this book.

The mystery and suspense of who committed the murder kept me reading all the way to the end when the real culprit is revealed. The story, as well as the prose, held my interest as a reader all the way through. The story never lagged or veered off into too much history or too much commentary. The history was peppered throughout the story perfectly. The story moved from beginning to end.

Historical mysteries always have a bit of history running though them, and Emily Queen doesn't disappoint. So fans of historical mysteries will love this one.

BRITISH ENGLISH TERMS:

Kudos to Ms. Queen for including a list of British-to-English translation on common words and terms that are different between the English dialects. For example, a drugstore is referred to as a Chemist. The word 'daft' means a bit stupid or silly. A yard is referred to as a garden. A jumper is a sweater in American English. This was very helpful and it was listed in the Table of Contents.

MY FAVORITE TURN OF PHRASES:

"We cannot arrive too early, dear," her mother said as if she coined the term 'fashionably late.'
Often accused of callousness, Vera followed her mother's example and let the opinions of most roll off her back like inconsequential raindrops.
. . . let her shrug off some of the mantle of sadness constantly draped over her shoulders.
. . . though there was a tightness around her eyes to attest she still had a lot on her mind.
. . . plus an air of unattainability that many women seemed to want to challenge.
Every eye in the room seemed trained on Mrs. Blackburn; most of the men's wide with appreciation, while many of the women's narrowed to slits of envy.
Mrs. Barton said, her back ramrod straight in her chair, while she wrung her fingers nervously.
. . . there is another side to that simpering excuse for a man.

The above lines of prose are only about 25% of the ones I had saved to read again. Great lines all throughout the book.

There are six books in this series and I have the next one on my "next up" list.

Writer’s Diary – Book Review – Dead for Good

WHAT I LEARNED READING Dead for Good by Stacy Claflin with Nolon King:

I left a five star review as the book was well worth the read. It was well written, the prose was good and easy to read. This book held my interest and the action started on Page 1.

I would classify this book as a psychological thriller. What I found most clever about the book is that all of the suspense was inside the family home, with a little help from some outside neighbors. The plotline was very believable and it worked throughout the story.

The author/authors created characters who had a lot to do during the story but also had a lot of depth to them as well.

The only criticism I have is that the ending was not so much a twist as more of a 'out of nowhere' kind of resolution. There was no real foreshadowing of the dual side to the culprit. I will keep it very vague in case anyone reading this would want to read the book, which I would highly recommend.

I'm no expert on plot twists, but most of the YouTube Teachers suggest that a surprise ending needs to be foreshadowed somewhere in the story, so the reader says, ah, yes, I should have seen that. That is the one thing I didn't really feel in this read. I felt the true culprit kind of just popped up in the end to surprise the reader but wasn't foreshadowed in any way.

That was my only criticism. I still gave this book a 5 star on Amazon because I believe my criticism only came from me being an author and looking for these things. My guess from the reviews on this book is that normal readers didn't even catch the lack of foreshadowing I'm referring to here. The character was written into the beginning of the story, and that was enough for the normal readers.

This was also a great psychological thriller without having a psychiatrist or psychologist in the plot. The whole thing worked well within the one family.

MY FAVORITE TURN OF PHRASES:

~ We're in this together. Always and forever.

~ People tended to only focus on the good in the deceased as if death automatically diluted the truth.

SUMMARY:

I highly recommend Dead for Good. It gets high marks for great plot, great characters and readability. This book's action started literally on Page 1 and kept up until the very end. It didn't sag once.

Writer’s Diary – Book Review – A Perfect Alibi

This is not so much a book review of the story written by Anne Baines, but more about what I, as an author, learned from reading it. To me, that fits more into a Writer's Diary. The name of the book is A Perfect Alibi, and it is Book 1 of the Sam Arbichaut Mysteries.

First of all, I enjoyed the book immensely. Since I began to write mysteries, I no longer just read mysteries for entertainment. My author's mind is always looking for what I can learn and use in my own writing.

I found this book to be easy to read, which I think is crucial in today's world where people are too busy to spend two pages reading a description of the trees in the field. So the action in the book moves at a pace that keeps the reader engaged and trying to think of how the mystery will unfold.

PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR WRITING TIPS:

I also learned a few things in the book about PI techniques. For example, PIs keep the cars running so the sound of an engine catching won't make anyone look up or draw any attention to themselves. Pulling out after someone would make them suspicious, but a car that was already in motion wouldn't strike anyone as a potential tail.

In spite of all the scenes in movies and on TV, the identifying of a body is done today with photos.

MY FAVORITE TURN OF PHRASES:

plasticky smiles
Death was brutal and messy. A small, contained scene like this was outside the natural order of things.
the sort of sleazy people who thought the worst of others because they were so lowbrow themselves
He knew the sorts of things they said behind their hands
Now he was in his late forties, he was terrified of the half-century marker he saw approaching, and he wanted to grasp at the youth that had slipped away.
Clint didn't have the look in his eye of someone savoring gossip.
Fredricks was quiet now, almost introspective.
It sounded like she was the sort of person who was never satisfied because she's never bothered to figure out what she really wanted in life. It was like she was following all the rules because she thought the world owed her happiness if she did.

There were so many more great phrases used by Anne Baines. I would recommend this book to any author focused on improving their own prose as well as any authors who want to learn about private investigator techniques. The prose was fantastic and I have the other books in this series on my "next up" list.