Let the Dead Bury the Dead by David Carlson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A sober and thoughtful mystery that presents a window into the Greek Orthodox denomination. The sleuth team is a troubled homicide detective and a Greek Orthodox monk. They work well together, and their friendship is crucial to the story. The murder is really dark, and it may touch nerves in some readers.

Reviewed for Affaire de Coeur Magazine. http://affairedecoeur.com.



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If we are honest with ourselves, we’d all like a friend with bluntness like Alex Quick.  As a friend, she’d tell you what you need to hear; not necessarily what you want to hear.  But, with her dear friend, Dr. Helena Drummond, she called it wrong.  For some time, Helena had been trying to tell Alex she felt as if someone was stalking her.  Since Alex knew her friend’s flair for the dramatic, she’d not paid attention.  Then, Helena had not shown up for an important meeting with a new client.  She went to Helena’s home in Canterbury and let herself in as they’d exchanged keys.  She found her mutilated body on the bed … No, wait … it wasn’t Helena.  Alex experienced two thoughts simultaneously.  Where was Helena?  Who was this dead woman?

 

Alex and Helena were collaborators at Drummond & Quick Ltd, working to produce high-quality art book anthologies.  Before this, Alex was a Detective Inspector.  She had cop instincts.  While the police were engaging the thought that Drummond may have been the killer, Alex knew her friend better than that.  At least she thought she knew her.  As she began answering questions for the police, she was finding just how little she really knew about her friend’s life.

 

The biggest complaint I have of this story is a feeling that Alex, as an ex-cop, should have called the police a little sooner.  Instead, I felt she allowed herself to enter the room and contaminate what would become the scene of the crime.  I really liked Alex’s personality, her rough exterior, and her unwavering faith in her friend.  The story was told at a fast pace and held a nice twist.  Some aspects of the story were not explained fully to my satisfaction.  For the faint of heart, the crime was a bit graphic.  Bottom line, though, is that I’d love to read more of Alex Quick.  Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

This was a quick, involving read, and part of me wanted to rate it higher because of that and the fact that Jess reminds me favorably of Veronica Mars, but the mystery was a bit too simplistic and predictable. But overall, I like the idea of a teenage English girl sleuth very much, and I'd recommend it to YA mystery readers.

Overall rating: 3.5/5.0 stars.

Reviewed for Affaire de Coeur Magazine. http://affairedecoeur.com.

Dead Certainty: A contemporary horse rac... Mysteries and intrigue come thick and fast in the world of racing. Dead Certainty by Glenis Wilson is another addition to this catalogue. The novel could have been written by the likes of Dick Francis (or his wife) as it exhibits the same style of writing. Another similarity is the fact that mystery also surrounds the society of racing, here too.

I'm not complaining about how Ms Wilson has written Dead Certainty but I'm not liking the racing theme. Many critics could see this as piggy-backing on the success of a best-selling author which would be a shame. The author should be viewed as someone new and exciting in their own right. Constant references to another best-selling writer in its reviews isn't really what any author wants to see. Another worrying thing for me, is that I was actually getting extremely confused in my head between Dead Certainty and Tip Off, a John Francome novel. Yes, yet another series of horse racing mysteries...

Perhaps this was due to the fact that I had only finished the latter novel recently; a matter of a few weeks. But, whatever the reason, this is not the desired reaction from your readers that you should be aiming for. Your book should be the one that sticks in people's minds. It should make a mark. Unfortunately, for Ms Wilson, Dick Francis' Bolt is the only book that does that for me in this particular genre.

Even though I am a lover of horses and mysteries, I often tend to avoid reading books just like these, anyway. I have an idea that the subject of racing is a contributory factor here. I'm just not liking it. There are so many other equine disciplines out there that it is a waste of an extensive market just to stick to one or two.

I can't fault the remaining aspects of the novel, though. Good development of characters with a variety of personalities and personal difficulties. Maybe, something to offset the lack of variety in the book's theme? Aside from everything I have said, this is a good book to read, plenty of action and you can't help root for the poor protagonist who seems to get it in the neck frequently. He appears to have more luck caring for his disabled sister than he does himself.

Good read.