Blithe Alden

Smart literary mystery

Revisado: 04-21-25

Lots of twists and turns, interesting characters, some thoughtful probing into stereotypes and assumptions. The ending is a bit abrupt, but I enjoyed the detectives process of working through clues and challenging wits with the killer.

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A fun collection

Revisado: 01-13-25

This is an entertaining batch of mysteries, some familiar, some unfamiliar ones by well-known authors, some entirely new to me. It’s a strong group - I’d say there wasn’t a dud in the whole collection and some are top-notch. I was really sorry to realize it was over at the end of the last story!

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Predicable and silly

Revisado: 01-11-25

The heroines are stereotypical. The smart one, the prim one, the lower-class one. The smart one behaves like an idiot. The police are unprofessional (though I liked the detective sergeant, who’s in over her head and trying her best). The ending is one of the longest, silliest confrontation scenes I’ve ever read, rehashing the whole plot moment by moment, with cutaways to panic-and-glory moments for the other two leads to try for some suspense. I’ll be skipping the rest of the series.

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Predictable

Revisado: 12-27-24

I guessed the plot very early in each book. It could be ok, if the characters were interesting, but the suspects are cardboard and the main series characters aren’t much better. The sergeant is becoming a peculiar jester-saint and Falconer keeps the books going by failing to make obvious deductions. Not going to bother reading anything else in this series.

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Light, fun mystery

Revisado: 09-30-24

An entertaining series start. I like that both of the main characters work and have connections with various levels of society that don’t involve them acting out of character for their time setting. The mystery is intriguing, the characters lively and well-crafted with consistent personalities, and it’s often funny. Too bad the narrator is so poor. Her English accent sounds like the southern US and she mispronounces words. When speaking as the narrator she doesn’t lower her tone at the ends of statements, an irritating affectation that is characteristic of American readers and keeps drawing attention to herself rather than the story.

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Entertaining classic mystery

Revisado: 03-21-24

Interesting characters, unexpected solution, great period atmosphere. Neither the romance nor the mystery came out the way I expected at the beginning, but they are both satisfying.

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Fun classic

Revisado: 03-09-24

Lots of twists and turns and a fascinating setting from the early days of flying, written by an aviator who knew what he was talking about.

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Terrible narrator, decent story

Revisado: 11-24-23

The story is a decent police procedural, slow moving, but with some twists. The narrator is beyond terrible. It’s disconcerting to have a British mystery read in a folksy American accent, but that’s not the worst. He reads in a nasal monotone with so little sense of what the words mean that I Googled him to see if this was read by AI. His only attempt to distinguish characters is to read the first few words from a new character in an even more nasal accent than usual, then slips back to the standard monotone. French, German, Irish, English, American characters sound exactly the same. The recording includes a couple of retakes that should have been deleted and a truly disturbing throat clearing hack. I only finished it so I could warn others!

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Perfect for puzzle lovers

Revisado: 06-17-23

Pseudonyms, anagrams, misdirection, murder by gadget - an inventive mystery by one of my favorite Golden Age writers.

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Lighthearted gothic

Revisado: 05-30-23

Full of footsteps in the dark, a masked monk up to no good, creaks and groans, and hidden identities. Lively characters, some funny dialogue, a bit of romance - an entertaining mix. Well read, too.

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