Task 1:  It’s the annual airing of grievances!  Time to list the top 5 books that disappointed you the most this year and let us know why!

Well, looking at my shelves for the year and the overall ratings, I'm looking at these books and scratching my head as to why I rated them as high as I did.  

My review of Murder in the Museum.  

This one should have been a DNF.  There was so much I disliked about this book.  It was just not a good story, at all.  

Looking back on my review I gave it .5 star each for the cover, the title and the setting of the British Museum.  I probably should have just gave it 1 star since the BM setting didn't last more than 24 pages.

My review of Reading with the Stars: A Celebration of Books and Libraries by Leonard Kniffel.  

A collection of essays by people who were supposed to be stars that weren't (except Julie Andrews and Oprah).  Most of them sounded far more defensive than celebratory and few of them were average at best. 

2 stars.

My review of The Road to Cardinal Valley by Earlene Fowler  

Now this one ... this one I had hopes and expectations for.  The author wrote a fabulous mystery series back in the day with outstanding characters and settings.  But she let me down with this one.  Still great characters and settings, but she yanked them around too much and was far too preachy and churchy to boot.

2 stars.  2 bitter stars.

My review of Poison by Sarah Pinborough  

Oh, how I didn't like this book.  A fairy tale retelling with juvenile prose and adult sex scenes.  I failed to feel the darkness, and cared nothing whatsoever for any of the characters.  This turned out to be a bonus since the story ended without any resolution for anyone.  Except me, who happily tossed it in the big black box to be given away at next opportunity.

1 star for a pretty cover. 

My review of The Haunting of Fox Mill by Phyl Cooke  

Not sure why I gave this 2 stars - it's pretty terrible too.  The writing was bad, the MC was stupid and the plotting was, according to me, "a car crash".

A Ghost story that failed utterly to give me so much as a goosebump.

2 stars.  Why, I do not know.

Wow, this was really not good.  I started listening to it on audiobook, and meant to DNF it, but my phone doesn't unlock while I'm in the car and I kept forgetting to pick a new book before driving off again.  By the time I got home last night I was 90% finished and thought 'to hell with it', grabbed my print copy, and just finished it off.

What I didn't like:

Henry Fairhurst:  He's sort of the co-MC of the book, along with Inspector Shelly.  He's a damp, hen-pecked, Walter Middy sort of fellow; whingey too.

Henry's sister:  every horrible stereotype about single women, crammed into one book.  Truly a horrible character I would not be able to resist smacking in real life.

Inspector Shelly: the other MC of the book, the Scotland Yard Inspector that goes around not only theorising before the facts, but telling all involved in the case that they are the facts, never mind silly things like official coroner reports, or post-mortems, or blood analysis.  Shelly says the man died of cyanide poisoning, then by golly, that's what he died of.  And speaking of cause of death:

The cause of death:  A man does not fall asleep in the British Museum Reading Room and peacefully die from cyanide poisoning mid-snore.  The author was a contemporary of Agatha Christie; I hope she smacked him upside the head with his own book before setting him straight.  Cyanide is a nasty way to die and I'm certain his snoring would have been the least offensive thing everyone in the Reading Room that day would have had to witness.

The writing:  Rowland writes as though he imagines his reader to be an idiot, the result being his characters all sound like idiots.  There are some very Dick and Jane moments in this book.

The plot:  Let me put it this way:  I read cozies, and I thought it was preposterous.  

What I liked:

The cover.  The title.  The British Museum setting, which ended after page 24.  I gave each 1/2 star, but it was all downhill from there.

I gotta say, I'm not loving this so far.  Close to dnf'ing, in fact.  The MC has this weird Walter G. Middy vibe and he giggles.  His sister is a harridan.  The writing is simplistic and the police are completely unrealistic, with the investigator telling the victim's daughter the determination and method of death before any official ruling has been made (and this by his own admission).  

It got a little better just before I pulled up to the house, so I might give it one more day, or at least 1/2 of my daily commute.

I decided to do a little mini-exploration of vintage mysteries set in London, to go along with my read of Murder in Piccadilly! I snagged this one, & also bought the "Capital Crimes" BLCC anthology edited by Martin Edwards.

I already own Lord Edgware Dies, which takes place in London, so I'm going to give that one a reread as well, and possibly Margery Allingham's The Tiger in the Smoke, also mentioned by Edwards in the chapter on murders set in London, to round out the group.

In the middle of this, I'll also still be joining in the buddy read for Murder of a Lady late this week! Can't wait!

I love the covers of the books in this series, but I have yet to find a story that keeps me interested.

:(

This one is so slow, dated, and lacking some much-needed atmosphere.