Niezbyt często sięgam po książki z powodu ich okładek, ale akurat abonament Legimi daje swobodę ulegania takim zachciankom. Inaczej wybieram lektury, jeśli na książkę trzeba wydać kilkadziesiąt złotych, a inaczej jeśli wystarczy dodać na półkę i pobrać na czytnik. W ten oto sposób zacząłem czytać „Śmierć w Chateau Bremont” M.L. Longworth. Nawet specjalnie się nie zastanawiałem, nie czytałem wcześniej recenzji, nie sprawdziłem kto napisał. Poprzestałem na skojarzeniu po tytule, że to zapewne francuski kryminał. Za takowymi nie przepadam, ale znowu – zdecydowała okładka. Zwyczajnie mnie urzekła zarówno w przypadku „Śmierci w Chateau Bremont” jak i drugiego tomu serii - „Morderstwa przy rue Dumas”.

Urzekająca okładka książki M.L. Longworth „Śmierć w Chateau Bremont” (źródło: smakslowa.pl)

Z samym czytaniem było jednak wyraźnie słabiej. Nie chcę nikogo zniechęcać do lektury tego tomu czy całej serii, ale ja po następne części raczej nie sięgnę. Dlaczego? Czytanie zwyczajnie mi nie szło. Taki styl pisania mi nie odpowiada. Moim zdaniem „Śmierć w Chateau Bremont” to lektura z jednej strony dla miłośników Francji, a z drugiej – kobiecego stylu pisania. Żeby nie było – Francję lubię takoż nie oceniam książek na podstawie płci autora. Ale w tym przypadku nie mogłem się przekonać ani do prowadzenia fabuły, ani do opisów. Podam przykład zdania nieźle oddającego charakter książki: „Odłożyła portfel i kluczyki do starego fajansowego naczynia z Quimper, stojącego na stoliczku z czarnego szkła, który kupiła na wyprzedaży w Habitat”. Lubię budowanie atmosfery i oddawanie charakteru miejsca akcji poprzez wplatanie detali, ale bez przesady! Jedno zdanie a ile się dowiedziałem zupełnie zbędnych rzeczy o stoliku i naczyniu na klucze.

Równie urzekająca okładka „Morderstwa przy rue Dumas” (źródło: smakslowa.pl)

Cała kryminalna historia opowiedziana jest bez specjalnych zawiłości czy budowania napięcia. Śledztwo toczy się powoli utykając raz po raz, a to w winnicy, a to w kawiarni czy restauracji. Do tego jeszcze trochę blasku francuskiej arystokracji i dużych pieniędzy. W końcu, tak trochę przy okazji, okazuje się kto zabił. Ot i cała historyja.

Urzekające Aix-en-Provence, gdzie toczy się akcja powieści (źródło: Google Street View)

Nie polecam ale też specjalnie nie zniechęcam. To nie jest zapewne zła książka. Sądzę też, że zarówno taki sposób pisania, francuskie realia, jak i powolna, sącząca się intryga bez brutalnych opisów i mrożących krew w żyłach akcji może znaleźć uznanie.

Ebooki M.L. Longworth można kupić np. w księgarni Ebookpoint:

• „Śmierć w Chateau Bremont”
• „Morderstwo przy rue Dumas”

23 books read this month.  A very happy surprise for me; had I been asked to guess, I'd have said no way would this be a great reading month by numbers.  My Christmas subscription of NewScientist magazine started arriving at the end of March and I read each weekly issue cover to cover - some articles more than once (*cough*quantum time*cough*).  

MT has also had a spectacularly bad run - even by his standards - of small, non-serious, but debilitating injuries: first minor surgery to his left wrist, immediately followed by an injury to his right wrist; just after the dr.'s all-clear, he sprained his ankle.  A day or two later, he severely sprained his right wrist (and arm) dragging a heavy trolly uphill.  As these injuries ALWAYS happened on Thursday or Friday, a girl could be forgiven for giving him the side-eye at this point, but it really is bad luck.  Both his and mine, because I am picking up the slack, including laying down a stone pathway that has to be done before we have a new garden fountain delivered.   For the record, I've always excelled at doing nothing, so I'm knackered!  But proud (about the path - stuff the housework).

All of that excess of info to say that I can't believe I read 23 books!  1 5-star read and 4 4.5-star reads amongst the lot. A few disappointments, but no outright bad books to speak of.  

Two charts this month - all the books were printed except 1 Audiobook:

My TBR project:

I've set a book buying budget for each month that = 50% of the total books I read the previous month.  Any books not bought carry over to the next month.  

I have to cry Force majeure for May, because this happened, and since I make up the rules for this little experiment, those books don't count. 

Moving on...

Last month I bought 14 out of the 16 budgeted, leaving me with 2 to carry over to May.  My total books read in April being 23 leaves me with a budget of 11 (rounding down for a  small error of margin). 

total books I can buy in May:  13

A departure from the format of the first 6 mysteries, I had doubts at first (as always), but it's possibly one of the best in the series.

Longworth tells this story from two angles, a few months apart.  One is set over a dinner in NYC, between an editor and a world famous, Nobel-level author, ostensibly discussing the possibility of the great man's newest book, a memoir.  But over dinner, at the editor's prompting, he tells the story of events that took place 3 months previously, in France.  The second angle is set 3 months back in time, focussing on Verlaque, Bonnet and Paulik as they find themselves in the middle of events as they unfolded.

The events surrounding the author's purchase of the Bastide Blanche are the culmination of several past events and include haunting, gaslighting, kidnapping, and a missing woman.  Verlaque and Bonnet each delve into different parts of the house's  - and the author's - histories to try to untangle the mess of events.

Longworth created a story to get lost in; one of those where I should probably have liked some of the characters a lot less than I did.  It was well plotted, bringing an end that even though it was foreshadowed early on, was both unexpected and tragic for almost everyone.  My only complaint was a sketchy resolution concerning the house's history; the reader gets enough to fill in the broad strokes, but I'd have liked to have known how much of the legend was real: was anyone buried in the basement?  (not a spoiler, btw)  But I did particularly like the ending, the editor's advice to the author; yes, there was a mercenary aspect to it, but truth, redemption and justice won too.

An excellent cozy series that isn't anything like cute and fluffy, but rather intelligent and well-written, and one that seems to be getting better as it goes.  

This one was better than #5, but not quite as compelling as the first few.  But I think that's to be expected as a series progresses: familiarity with the characters and the storytelling creates a higher set of expectations.

Love has made Verlaque soft.  This isn't a bad thing, but I'll admit he's slightly less interesting now that the sharp edges have been softened.  Marine had far fewer pages in this book, which was a little bit of a disappointment; I liked her presence and contributions to earlier cases in previous books.  

There were several plots going at once, all interwoven together and delightfully - and believably - muddying each others' waters.  Almost all of the stories were interesting (one was a bit meh) and the resolution concerning the murder victim's drug usage/dealing was  so very cheeky; I loved it.  In the background runs the Curse of La Fontaine, adding a touch of atmosphere to everything.

I'm thoroughly enjoying this series and am very pleased there's another one on its way; I'm really looking forward to its release.

This works for the Book themes for Advent: [...] or a book featuring 4 siblings.   The murder victim is 1 of 4 brothers, and at least one of the other brothers plays a significant part in the book; the other two brothers appear frequently as well. 

(With this cover, it also works for the Pancha Ganapati book theme: the cover is entirely yellow, with orange text and black illustrations.)

Something went wrong somewhere in this book, and I don't know what it was or where it happened.  Ok, yes, I know where part of it went wrong; I knew who the murderer was reaching page 80, but that shouldn't have mattered much to my overall enjoyment.

The book is about the discovery of a lost painting of Cézanne's, which right away I love; I even enjoy the flashback POV chapters, a device that I'm at best ambivalent about.  The setting is Aix en Provence and it sounds as wonderful as it always has in Longworth's books, and Verlaque and Bonnet get more and more likeable with each book.  

But at some point after about 2/3 of the way through, it fizzled.  I don't like to say it's because there was no perilous climax, but it might be.  Everything was tied up neatly at the end, but it still felt unfinished, or more accurately, un-satisfying. 

Still an enjoyable read I always wanted to get back to, but not nearly as well constructed as the previous 4.