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Disappointing

Revisado: 04-02-25

Good intention but the story lost all resonance with the original characters which made it hard to engage emotionally.

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Good potential thin plot

Revisado: 05-20-24

Interesting set up and setting w great appeal but thin plot. Characters need depth and plot needs more links and clues.

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Great characters & narration

Revisado: 07-10-23

The mystery was less important than the relationships. Enjoyed it and will read more but feel like the characters are a little hard to emotionally connect with. Judith is the best.

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Smart prose good characters

Revisado: 05-19-23

Sassy prose and good characters make up for a somewhat thin plot. Fun book with excellent narrator

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Good premise, bad narration

Revisado: 12-21-21

The narrator has a pleasant voice, does a great job with the main character (an American), and clearly makes a good effort to vocally differentiate the characters, but the story takes place in London and her British accents are terrible. I wanted to like the stories--cozies are a nice escape--but accents aside, I was having trouble reconciling someone who was trained to be a surgeon at a top-notch university who was so bad at decision-making and so painfully immature. Even allowing for the career-ruining accident, depression, and the lack of social skills that many highly-focused professionals can have, the main character's behavior and inner dialogue don't ring true. However, if you don't mind the character-plot inconsistencies or the British and French accents, the premise and the French-Sherlock-Holmeian character Violet DuPris could be entertaining, as suggested by the many reviews. I suspect the Amazon reviews are better because people voice their own characters rather than rely on a narrator.

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Disappointing Story and Narration

Revisado: 02-01-21

Daisy Dalrymple books are light entertainment not "literature." Daisy is moderately annoying at the best of times, the plots are obvious, the characters are stereotypical and don't develop any depth, however, the stories are generally entertaining in that cozy mystery kind of way. Kind of like a 1950s RomCom. Even with that low level of expectations, the Muckraker is a disappointment. The police are modeled after the worst of the prohibition stereotypes; everyone talks with slang whether it would be appropriate or not. Lucy Rayner is in the unenviable position of having to voice unrealistic male characters, speaking like the Al Capone gangsters (even the cops and bellboys) with flat, grating American accents. Not every American (even in 1930's NY) smashes vowels that badly. The highpoint is the Irish lilt of the hotel maid. The absurd characterizations of the police jumping to ridiculous conclusions and the continual grating of the American accents made it impossible to finish. I will skip onto the next and see if it fairs better or if the series has run out of steam and charm.

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Fun premise, thin characters, over the top narration

Revisado: 10-31-20

Fun premise but character development seriously lacking nuance so a lot of reactions don’t ring true. Not helped by narration that escalated into bear hysteria with no buildup over all “dangerous” encounters no matter how serious. Not expecting a lot but was hoping for a more emotionally satisfying story.

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Narrator awful; fun premise; undeveloped character

Revisado: 09-20-20

This book's narrator is different than the first two in the series. This narrator is absolutely awful. No "upper class" American who is allegedly trained in all the social niceties that would allow her to move in circles where she could "catch" a titled husband would pronounce words with an accent from Newark, New Jersey or Southie in Boston, flattening vowels and turning 'er' into 'ah. It is not only distracting but makes Francis seem more unbelievable than she already appears. If there is a book 4 with the same narrator, I will have to pass.

The premise had promise, which is why I stuck through all three books. Also, this is a cozy, so allowances are made for lack of depth and consistency in character development. However, the author has the unfortunate habit of having people (especially Francis and Lily) become irrationally angry at the drop of a hat, appear lacking in any amount of common sense and unable to draw simple conclusions, even discounted for social norms of the era. There is no real character development of any of the main characters. Aunt Hettie may be the most interesting but gets little airtime. For Francis and George who are alleged to be investigators (apparently George does this for the Home Office), the lack of rational thought, problem-solving and internal logic is disappointing. Francis is furious because George doesn't share everything. She never once acknowledges that there is a difference between what is appropriate to share between them and the presumable constraints of his job and it ends with Francis wanting to be reassured that she will play a role in all of George's investigations. I suggest that George become a private inquiry agent as it's highly unlikely that the Home Office would welcome an untrained operative on assignments or privy to confidential information. His capitulation makes him seem weak since it is so blatantly unrealistic. I hope that the author can devote more time to internal narrative consistency and adding a little more depth to the characters should she continue in the series.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

Good world building, needs more character depth

Revisado: 08-29-19

The world Hunter has built is very interesting. I would like to see a little more character development as the relationships among all characters remain superficial, especially those between Jane and "love interests." My biggest disappointments are 1) how often Jane has to be saved by others and 2) that her angst and guilt precludes critical thinking. I can't figure out how she has succeeded as a vamp killer when she is so consistently attacked and nearly killed except for the intervention of others and so little able to use intellectual faculties. I was hoping for her to be more kick-butt in action, not just in attitude and accessories. I could do with less of the Beast/Jane exchange. It makes a good plot device, but much of the Beast description is both inconsistent in what is animal experience and language vs. human thought and unnecessary filler that becomes repetitive and sometimes annoying. All that being said, I will probably give one more book a try to see if the things that bothered me in Blood Cross are indicative of the rest of the series or if the world and characters grow in depth as the series progresses. Khristine Hvam does a creditable job as narrator. Some characters are hard to distinguish and Bruiser's accent is all over the place but, on net, she delivers a good narrative experience.

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Bizarre but interesting & well-written

Revisado: 05-27-19

I was skeptical at the start, esp. as the lead character seems stereotypical (other than as a doctor for vampires, ghouls, mummies and the like), but the story develops in interesting ways and the relationships among the different characters becomes sort of compelling and their differences made it quite interesting. Some of the characters are better developed than others but all in all, it was a very good listen and left me hoping for a sequel.

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