Darth Pedant

I liked this book more than its predecessor, due in large part to the setting of the mystery. Messy publishing drama of the fictional variety is extremely my jam. It’s right up there with cheesy disaster flicks. Only more believable. I worked for a small press for a short time, and the drama that went on there was sometimes intense, sometimes trivial and petty, and always plentiful. It was entirely believable to me that half of the members of a small literary community could be suspects in the gruesome murder of an obnoxious author, and that made it that much easier to get sucked into the mystery.

 

The other thing that increased my enjoyment was Robin coming out of her shell a little more, standing up to both Strike and her fiancé and coming into her own as a fledgling detective. She’s hands down my favorite character.

 

Strike I liked a bit less this time around. He goes on an unapologetic people-using spree, and I just had no sympathy for him when things didn’t go his way. I’m hoping his behavior is part of a larger character arc and that his acting like a self-centered tit comes back to bite him in the ass sooner or later. Preferably sooner.

 

I did raise my eyebrow at the depiction of self-published authors. The sneering disdain was almost palpable. On the one hand, it makes me wonder what Rowling’s own attitude toward self-publishers is. And on the other hand, I have seen the real-life likes of the fictional Katheryn Kent in action on the internet, right down to their accurately depicted low-traffic, typo-ridden blogs.

 

I know this is a bit disjointed and rambly, but I’m actually doing pretty well for someone with a work-fried brain who can’t remember if she ate breakfast this morning. I mean, some of these sentences are actually coherent! Score! Anywho, the TL;DR version is: I liked it more than book one and I’m looking forward to book three.

 

(Read for Halloween Bingo 2019 Film at 11 square)