Well-Schooled in Murder by Elizabeth George
I got the idea that Well-Schooled in Murder was part of a series, and not the first part either, but it didn’t matter much. Except that the lead characters had history with each other that I didn’t fully understand, however many books occur prior to this one aren’t relevant to the plot.
It’s a standard detective mystery story. The characters are fully drawn, perhaps even overdrawn in some cases, and it moves a bit slowly due to too much detail where it’s not needed (fully drawing minor characters for instance). Similar to Agatha Christie’s mysteries (this is also a British story), it turns out that just about everyone had good reason to murder the victim and the mystery is eventually resolved based on secret relationships discovered near the end of the book. But whatever it is that makes Agatha Christie stories so delightful to read – the quaintness of the times or the believable human interactions – is missing in this story. The overall tone is dark and heavy and the long descriptions of buildings, rooms, people’s clothes, and other uninteresting minutiae contributes to the desire to merely have the thing over with.
For all that, you’re not likely to stop reading it though. The characters are interesting enough and the plot has enough turns to keep you turning pages. But I doubt I’ll pick up another one.
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