Date Published: December 6, 2016

Format: E-book

Source: NOOK

Date Read: January 27, 2019

Winter COYER/24 in 48 Read-a-thon

Blurb

After a car accident ended her medical career before it even started, Cassie moved to London on a whim, expecting to see the sights and live the typical tourist backpacker lifestyle.

Instead she finds herself accompanying a French private detective, Violet Despuis, as they attempt to find out who poisoned four people in the middle of London.

Cassie's life soon includes this crazy detective, an ancient landlady with a curious past, a mischievous orange cat who likes going for walks on a leash, and a super hot pathologist that Cassie is sure is out of her league.

And they haven't even found the murderer yet...

Review

A fun cozy mystery that is partly inspired by Sherlock Holmes, although Cassie is more Dr. Watson than a knock off Holmes. And the beginnings of a relationship between Cassie and the ME worked really well for me. I love the dynamic between Cassie and Violet and how they work off each other or work together. Definitely adding this series to my read list!

"Of course," she said to me, "There's a certain irony to people from your part of the world coming back to the motherland, after all these years. Your ancestors fought to get away from us, you know."

 

"I know," I replied with a bit of a smile. "My father was born in Scotland, however. His parents moved to America when he was a boy, but I do have a British passport."

 

"Ah, lovely. Not that passports should mean much these days anyway. Open borders for everyone, that's what I say. But these damn people voting to leave the EU. Farmers from up north, scared that a brown person might move in next to them, when the closest thing they've ever seen to an Arab is the postman whose family moved here from Italy three generations ago."

I am really digging this cozy mystery series. Too bad it looks like it stops after four books. It's easy enough to get through in a few hours (I finished this in like 2 and a half with snack breaks included).

In the first book in the series, we have Cassie Coburn (our Watson) is still going through some depressive episodes. After being injured and unable to continue her medical career, her relocating to London is starting to do the trick though. When she's called up in the middle of the night by Violet Despuis (our Sherlock) she starts to feel her juices going again. The twosome investigate when two children of a prominent ambassador are found dead. All signs point to murder and Cassie and Violet have their hands full working for/against the Triads as well as thumbing their nose at MI-5. 

Cassie is a great character to root for. I do wish that we had seen her following up with her mother in this one though. Besides being worried about her adopted cat, she doesn't have a lot going on. I do like her friendship with Brianne as well. I am wondering if Silver has plans to have Cassie going into teaching or something. Even though she can't be a surgeon anymore, it definitely seems like she has a lot to still offer the medical community besides giving Violet the rundown on dead bodies. 

Silver does a good job with research on art in this book. I was fascinated by the history of painters using the color white in their works. I also thought the solution was clever and got a kick at seeing Violet show up MI-5. 

The setting of London is used very well and we get to read some about London's Chinatown. I also loved we have Violet and Cassie visiting a museum with Violet's descriptions of things as well. 

My biggest complaint though is that this book is short (it's only 212 pages) so I balked at spending $3.99 on this and even though I did like it, think it's too much. The next book is 204 pages for $3.99 and the final book is the shortest yet at 167 pages at $3.99 as well. So even though I enjoy this series, I am going to take a hard pass at buying the rest of the books in this series. 

So good. I really enjoyed this, but wish it had been a but longer. And I Hought that parts of Cassie's backstory we're  a bit confusing. This is why I gave it five stars, but did not favorite it. 

The first book in the Cassie Coburn mystery series (there are four books in this series) follows Cassie after a life changing accident changes her prospects of being a surgeon. Cassie movies from San Francisco to London to get over her depression that still lingers since her accident.  After a bike of her gets stolen she has a hilarious meet up with a French woman named Violet Despuis who is a private detective helping out the London police. Violet takes an interest in Cassie after using her deduction skills on Cassie. Cassie finds herself intrigued by Violet since she has nothing else to do. The duo team up when Violet investigates a supposed serial killer case.

I really liked Cassie a lot. The similarities to Dr. Watson were great, but Silver did her own spin on it. I stead of going to war and suffering from a gambling problem, we have Cassie suffering from depression and an addiction to fast food. And Silver doesn't treat her like a bumbling partner to Violet. Cassie gets increasingly better at deductions with Violet a very good teacher. 

Violet was interesting, but we don't learn much about her except she's estranged from her family. 

I was confused about Cassie's backstory too. She mentions her father, but her mom was a single mother. I thought initially her father died, but another sentence I read made it seem like he abandoned the family. Also Cassie comes into a huge amount of money due to her accident. So her being a cheap skate about lodging (she initially stayed at a hostel) didn't feel real. 

The writing was good and I thought the flow was great. The book moved quickly. I wasn't that interested in Cassie's love interest either. That part ruined the book a bit since it turned it into a more mainstream romance book. 

The final clues that lead to the guilty party was great. 

Very cute Sherlock (French woman with wealthy family) and Watson (American doctor who had her surgical career cut short) pastiche. This was short, but so good. I loved everything about it. Don't think I'll pay $3.99 for the subsequent books though, they are all under 200 pages and that feels like a lot for each book.