Tag Archives: female detective

Amy Caudill’s Reviews : The Retreat

Book Reviews, ,
The Retreat by Sarah Pearse

The Retreat (Detective Elin Warner, #2) by Sarah Pearse (Goodreads Author)

Amy Caudill‘s review

In this imaginative take on the isolated island murder mystery trope, a British detective, Elin Warner, investigates when a series of murders take place on an island resort with a dark history.

In the beginning of this story, Elin is on leave after experiencing a breakdown from incidents in her prior investigations, but when she is pulled into this case, which has personal connections through her boyfriend, she decides she must give this case her all.

Cary Island, also known as Reaper’s Rock, has a bloody past.  Once home to a school for troubled youth, it became the site of a massacre that still haunts locals.  However, a mogul has decided to build a luxury retreat on the island, which seems to be a success, until the first body appears.

 Though early signs make the death as an accident, Elin and her new partner Steed soon find evidence that indicates it might be otherwise. When another body appears, with ties to both the group including the first victim and the owner of the resort, the detectives uncover evidence linking both deaths to the previous group of murders on the island.  With a storm and problems on the mainland preventing Elin from getting reinforcements, it’s up to her and Steed to catch the killer, or killers, before they strike again.

I enjoyed this story very much, even though I haven’t yet read the first book in the series, which I’m sure would explain more about Elin’s personal issues.  The clues left about the past littered throughout the story as Elin’s thoughts and fears threaten to overwhelm her at times are eye-opening though.  Despite or perhaps because of her flaws, Elin is very relatable as a character, though the story frequently switched between her point of view and those of the party that appear to be victims of the murders. 

There is plenty of action, along with details revealing a complex backstory and history of the island and the prior murders. The only issue I had is the very end, where a secondary character reveals information not previously uncovered about a hidden motive behind one of the murders, far after the fact and seemingly without any suspicion being cast on her.  I don’t know if the author is setting up for another story, but it seemed completely random to reveal that at the end and did not seem to fit into the rest of the story at all.

Otherwise, a very enjoyable story, which I give four stars.

Amy Caudill’s Reviews : Elementary, She Read

Book Reviews, ,
Elementary, She Read by Vicki Delany

Elementary, She Read (A Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery #1)
by Vicki Delany (Goodreads Author)


Amy Caudill‘s review

  

The first installment in this lovely cozy mystery series features Gemma Doyle, who may or may not be related to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and is part-owner of the Sherlock Holmes Bookstore and Emporium at 221 Baker St., West London, Massachusetts.  This series, set in the present, contains many allusions to both Victorian literature and “Sherlockians,” fans of the great detective.

As a fan of Sherlock myself, I was intrigued by the concept of a modern day version of the detective series, and I love that the main protagonist, Gemma, while not actually a fan herself, seemingly has much in common with Sherlock Holmes.  She is extremely observant and direct to the point of bluntness, facts which her friends tolerate and understand but strangers sometimes find unsettling or offensive.

Her partner Jayne, co-owner of Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room, next door to the bookstore, is pulled into playing Gemma’s reluctant John Watson, as Gemma investigates the murder of the owner of a potentially valuable first edition print of one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories that is left hidden inside her store.

With a supporting cast of characters including a local reporter named Irene, a former love interest for Gemma in Detective Ryan Ashburton, a rival/foil in another Detective, Louise Estrada, and a comic relief character in Jayne’s boyfriend Robbie; author Vicki Delany has set the stage for a rich “universe” to draw on in furthering this series.

The mystery itself involves greed, theft, inheritance and multiple murders; and includes a number of suspects; though the true killer isn’t revealed till nearly the end of the story.  Gemma conducts her own investigation, alongside and in spite of warnings from the police, and has plenty of false starts and leads that don’t pan out before the exciting conclusion, which contains the only scene where the action is present and not just a dead body after the fact.

The author also included numerous references to books written in the Holmesian style by other authors, both classic and modern, as well as other detective stories from the Victorian and Edwardian era, which is only appropriate as one of the main settings is a bookstore.  Unfortunately, the distraction was too great for me as I stopped reading multiple times to get on Amazon and find out more about the different books mentioned!

Overall, this book contained a number of interesting characters and an absorbing plot, so I will look forward to exploring more in the series.  I give this book 4.5 stars.