A Cotswold Killing Book

This book was recommended to me on one of the forums as a good modern whodunit - in the classical style. At the end of the last page, I was filled with regret at having started on the book at all and having persevered through it. For the substance in there, the book did not deserve its length. This was at best a novelette. A novelette with big fonts and double spacing between lines.

My biggest problem with the book was lack of engagement. In my opinion, good whodunits- or for that matter, all fiction- rely primarily on three aspects of literature to engage the reader- plot, characters and prose. This book had none of these. With a thin plot and lack of any action, Ms Tope had ample scope to evolve her characters, show some creativity in moving the plot. But unfortunately she didnt. It was a mundane flow. Repetitive allusions to Thea's schedule and taking out the dogs and having tea and playing Scrabble were too irritating. Thea herself ends up as a confused ambiguous character. I did not get to know her as a character at all. The rest of the characters all fall flat. They are shapeless masses who seem to serve no purpose but just to exist as players in a murder mystery.

Another grouse- cant there be some humor somewhere? Is English country life so devoid of humor and laughs? That element is what makes the books of the golden age authors- Christie and Sayers and Tey- so likable. The picture I see at the end is a bunch of smile-less humor-less characters who just exist. And smile-less and humor-less is how I feel at the end of the book.

A dose of Christie or Sayers please to get over this "yawn"..