So many fiction series start out well then hit a sort of sophomore slump: Ovidia Yu’s Aunty Lee mystery series manages not only to avoid this pitfall but to improve (vastly, in my opinion) on her debut. While the food writing and observations regarding Singaporean mores and personalities are as excellent as before, the mystery …
Category: Mystery
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2016/04/12/aunty-lees-deadly-specials-by-ovidia-yu/
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2016/02/08/mycroft-holmes-by-kareem-abdul-jabbar-and-anna-waterhouse/
Dec 23 2015
The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty
I usually find Liane Moriarty novels superlative, but this one fell short for me. Here’s my main problem with The Last Anniversary: it’s fairly clear from the outset that Grace has post-natal depression, yet at no time in the proceedings does she acknowledge this as true. It’s absolutely maddening. I also haaaaated Laura. I suppose …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/12/23/the-last-anniversary-by-liane-moriarty/
Dec 09 2015
The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad #2) by Tana French
Tana French writes some really terrific, atmospheric fiction. She’s good at untangling complicated emotions and relationships and presenting them to the reader in a sympathetic fashion. But oh my God, this was the most ludicrous mystery setup I’ve ever read. It was so bad that I’m confident not even post-Meloni Law & Order: SVU would …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/12/09/the-likeness-dublin-murder-squad-2-by-tana-french/
Nov 17 2015
Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch
This was prolly the first book in the series where the case itself felt a little too convoluted (I mean, Isengard, really?) tho I really loved how the overarching series continues to develop with the Faceless Man and argh argh argh the ending! I didn’t expect that to happen and I should have: props to …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/11/17/broken-homes-by-ben-aaronovitch/
Oct 21 2015
New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear
There isn’t a zeppelin on the cover to let readers know this is an alternate history, but by way of making up for it, Elizabeth Bear sets the book’s first story on board hydrogen-filled German airship. The Hans Glücker is on its way from Calais to the jewel of British North America, the eponymous New …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/10/21/new-amsterdam-by-elizabeth-bear/
Oct 18 2015
Aunty Lee’s Delights (Singaporean Mystery #1) by Ovidia Yu
I’ve babbled on about my issues with Malaysian writers before (nutshelled: I want them to be super good, but when they are, I immediately hate myself for not writing, too,) and with this book, I realized that those issues extend to Singaporean writers, as well. I think it might be due to the two countries …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/10/18/aunty-lees-delights-singaporean-mystery-1-by-ovidia-yu/
Sep 01 2015
The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins
I think I would have liked this book more were it not marketed as the next Gone Girl. On its own, it’s a decent mystery novel with an excellent framing device, but I was expecting something far more diabolical and cautionary than the “don’t marry a psychopath” takeaway which, while good advice, is also fairly …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/01/the-girl-on-the-train-by-paula-hawkins/
Aug 21 2015
In The Woods by Tana French
There was a lot I enjoyed about this book, but I had two very large problems with it, both to do with Rob Ryan. The first is fairly spoilertastic, and less to do with his character than with what I felt was a strange choice on the part of the author. Essentially, you never find …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/21/in-the-woods-by-tana-french/
Jul 29 2015
Paper Towns by John Green
I think that if I hadn’t read and loved The Fault In Our Stars first, I’d likely be more charitable to this book, which was pretty good overall, just not as good. And I guess that’s unfair to Paper Towns, which is a pretty good mystery on its own (and I really liked how convincingly …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/29/paper-towns-by-john-green/
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