I haven't read a lot of mystery novels in my lifetime for the same reason I haven't seen a lot of horror movies -- I guess I just don't enjoy the sensation of being scared. But, intrigued with the synopsis on the back cover, I picked up a mystery at the library this week and devoured it. It's sooooo good! (And I wasn't scared once -- it's not that kind of book.)
The author, L.C. Tyler, is British, but I couldn't find any information on him/her (even a gender reference) at the publisher's web site. It is my personal suspicion that L.C. Tyler is a lot like one of the novel's most colorful characters, Elsie (L.C.?) Thirkettle, who edits the main character, Ethelred Tressider's, books. Ethelred makes his living writing mediocre mysteries and romances under three assumed names, but in reality his life is quite dull until his ex-wife goes missing and he is named the executor of her estate, which puts him in contact with all kinds of people from their shared past. Elsie, a choco-holic, shadows him on his rounds, trying to piece together what happened to Geraldine, whom she never liked anyway. Her interactions with Ethelred are hilarious! It's the very dry British humor throughout the book that makes every page a pleasure.
It's a short book -- just 206 pages. The characters are well drawn and all of the scenes are set with just the right amount of description, never too much. The mystery part was satisfying -- I didn't figure it out early on, though I did guess most of it before the very end.
Half-way through reading it, I hopped onto Amazon to see what other reviewers had said about it (confident that they had loved it, too) and found that there were none, so I wrote the first review. (It only recently came out.)
One caveat: being a British book, there is a little bit of language and some off-color references, but nothing too terrible. (I've been reading more modern British lit lately and I am always surprised by the offensive language -- I don't get it. But I think this book has much less language than most. It seems to have been peppered here and there like artificial seasoning.)
I just thumbed through the book to find a suitable passage to share, but in the interest of not divulging any of the plot, I will share only the opening quotation, which I love:
Mais il faut choisir: vivre ou raconter. -- Jean Paul Sartre
(But one must choose: to live or to remember.)
2 comments:
Hi, thanks for the lovely review. For the record, I'm male! If anyone would like more information about me, my dog or what else I've written, my website is www.lctyler.com. The second book in the Elsie and Ethelred series (Ten Little Herrings) is out in the UK in August. I'm currently working on the third - provisonaly entitled The Herring in the Library. Best wishes and thanks again. Len (L C Tyler)
How exciting! I can't believe you really exist and responded to my little review. I will be watching for your next book. I will now go straight to your web site.
Post a Comment