This is the story of Thelonius T. Bear. He has sold his flat in London, ostensibly to take photos for his job as a photojournalist, but also to sample the Norfolk lifestyle, and maybe relocate there. As he begins to settle into his possibly new life, publicans are being murdered all around him. The local head of CID has him in the frame for the crimes and seems to be following him everywhere. Throw in the over-amorous landlady of the B & B Thelonius is staying at and suddenly relocating doesn't seem so attractive! Can Thelonius convince the police he is innocent?I so wanted to enjoy this. It had all the makings of a fantastic cosy mystery but in the end it just didn't deliver. It had some genuine laugh-out-loud moments but was spoiled by pages and pages of long paragraphs with no breaks. It got so bad at one point, I nearly gave up, but I didn't, feeling I owed it to the author to persevere. The descriptions of the characters were brilliant and I found myself warming to one or two of them. The actual mystery itself took so long to get going, I almost forgot what the plot was! All in all it was a great idea that was marred by over-long paragraphs and too much 'padding'.
Quite a review. When you started, I was hoping for the English humor of Wodehouse. That probably wasn't there either.
ReplyDeleteI actually read this book and enjoyed it very much! I guess it's down to the specific taste of the reviewer or reader. I found it a very fun (and funny) read and I have recommended the book to several friends! :-)
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