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stonepicnicking_okapiI just finished listening to the audiobook version The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle narrated by James Cameron Stewart.
Overall, I liked it and would recommend it to people who like whodunnits. More in the cut.
It is the first book that I've binge-listened to in a while and probably the longest (it's 17 hours) audiobook I've ever binge-listened to. I finished it in about four days, which I don't recommend.
I loved 80% of the book and have placed a hold for the print version because there are turns of phrases I liked that I want to copy down but I didn't have time or focus to do so while I was listening. I like Turton's use of figurative language when he describes people and (more infrequently) landscape, e.g., 'he wore his fury like a suit.'
It's Clever. And more than anything (and this book helped me realize it) I like Clever. More than sentiment or message or character or anything else, I like Clever. I have to see the craft very blatantly and it has to hook me right away. And I think that's why I get so frustrated with myself when I don't like the book recommendations of People I'd Like to Be. I understand now that if it is New to Me and isn't Clever, I'm going to go into 'faking orgasm' mode, which, these days, is tedious at best and disturbing at worst.
So the premise of the book is that a person lives the same day 8 times in 8 different characters of the same familiar mystery scenario (manor house, old secrets, servants, playboys, spirited young ladies, unyielding parents, a rich fat man, a colonel, etc.) He has to solve the murder to be free of the game.
75% of the book is mostly that, and that's what had me hooked. But then it started to veer into why the protagonist is being subjected to this and what his relationship is with the other 'players' in the game. And then I was sad because it seemed like someone was putting a Morality Play in my Clever Whodunnit. And I was hoping that wasn't going to be the rest of the book. It wasn't. It jerks back to the mystery and there's a fairly satisfying resolution and then it goes back at the very end (think last page) to the Morality Play, which meant for me the last 25% sort of soured the experience (a little).
The narrator did a great job. His women's voices are okay. I only thought 'wow, this dude is a dude in a Lady Bracknell voice' a couple of times and I didn't cringe at all.
I have been thinking about my own locked room story (which I won't even have time to write until next year, I think) and it would be great to come up with a clever premise like this one. So it is food for thought on the fic front.
Anyway, I really, really liked it, then I put up with it, then I liked it again, then I put up with it (because there was only a couple of minutes left).
Overall, I liked it and would recommend it to people who like whodunnits. More in the cut.
It is the first book that I've binge-listened to in a while and probably the longest (it's 17 hours) audiobook I've ever binge-listened to. I finished it in about four days, which I don't recommend.
I loved 80% of the book and have placed a hold for the print version because there are turns of phrases I liked that I want to copy down but I didn't have time or focus to do so while I was listening. I like Turton's use of figurative language when he describes people and (more infrequently) landscape, e.g., 'he wore his fury like a suit.'
It's Clever. And more than anything (and this book helped me realize it) I like Clever. More than sentiment or message or character or anything else, I like Clever. I have to see the craft very blatantly and it has to hook me right away. And I think that's why I get so frustrated with myself when I don't like the book recommendations of People I'd Like to Be. I understand now that if it is New to Me and isn't Clever, I'm going to go into 'faking orgasm' mode, which, these days, is tedious at best and disturbing at worst.
So the premise of the book is that a person lives the same day 8 times in 8 different characters of the same familiar mystery scenario (manor house, old secrets, servants, playboys, spirited young ladies, unyielding parents, a rich fat man, a colonel, etc.) He has to solve the murder to be free of the game.
75% of the book is mostly that, and that's what had me hooked. But then it started to veer into why the protagonist is being subjected to this and what his relationship is with the other 'players' in the game. And then I was sad because it seemed like someone was putting a Morality Play in my Clever Whodunnit. And I was hoping that wasn't going to be the rest of the book. It wasn't. It jerks back to the mystery and there's a fairly satisfying resolution and then it goes back at the very end (think last page) to the Morality Play, which meant for me the last 25% sort of soured the experience (a little).
The narrator did a great job. His women's voices are okay. I only thought 'wow, this dude is a dude in a Lady Bracknell voice' a couple of times and I didn't cringe at all.
I have been thinking about my own locked room story (which I won't even have time to write until next year, I think) and it would be great to come up with a clever premise like this one. So it is food for thought on the fic front.
Anyway, I really, really liked it, then I put up with it, then I liked it again, then I put up with it (because there was only a couple of minutes left).