The Book I Just Finished

This may become a regular thing since I do read a lot. I think I said I’m not a big fan of reviews so why would I do one??? Because sometimes you just have things that need to be said. And it just gives me an opportunity to let you see a little more about me.

Several years ago, I finally got in the game with an electronic reader. It has plusses and minuses. The one thing I hate is trying to pick out a new book electronically. I don’t know why but I just prefer to actually pick up the book and read the jacket and maybe sample a few pages just to get a feel for whether this is something I want to read.

But it is certainly easier to just pick a title out of the new releases. This time I settled on “Lemon Curd Killer” by Laura Childs. Why? I’ve read stories like this in the past. Murder mysteries but the primary character is not a detective but someone who just seems to always end up around dead bodies and makes a hobby out of solving the cases. Most of this is really just light reading but you give me some quirky characters and a case to solve and I’ll be interested.

I’m pretty sure I’m not the target audience for this particular series of books. The main character runs a tea shop in Charleston SC and, as seems to be the norm for this type of story, she’s kind of perfect. Which is fine but I prefer flawed heroes. Anyway, she solves cases with the help of her tea expert who is kind of the perfect southern gentleman.

The books spends a great deal of time on the tea shop and the events they hold so you get great descriptions of the food and the tea and the decor. (Several recipes are included in the back) But it made me wonder if the mystery was really just the back story and the main story was on the doings of the tea shop.

There is very little actual investigation. Mostly just talking to the various characters who could be the killer and reacting to bits of gossip that might suggest a motive. Very little actual development of those characters or the particular reasons they might be a suspect. Probably just too many potential suspects to really get into solving the case.

Won’t give anything away but the actual ending and solving of the case was disappointing to say the least. It wasn’t because of any real investigative work. And the murderer really did all the work – basically confessing not because they were confronted with the “evidence” but because they seemed to guess that our main character had figured it out.

Which seems a bit forced. I mean if you had killed someone would you just give up and confess without knowing what the the other person knows? Plus, we got very little real backstory on this character so it kind of felt like the author was trying to go for a “shock” ending. It just ends up reading like she hit the page target and had to end the story to leave room for the recipes.

Had another problem with the story and it may seem minor but it bugged me throughout the book. The main character has a dog but it seems like she spends the majority of her day out and about doing tea things or investigating. The actual time isn’t mentioned but the impression is that she gets home well after dark each day. So who’s taking care of the dog while she’s gone? I felt so bad for the dog just being left in the house all day and maybe getting a little run when she finally got home.

I guess it was meant to be another thing to like about the main character. Who doesn’t like pet people? But I ended up just thinking she was a terrible dog person. Should have given her a cat. They don’t need people around and can be happy just sitting in the house all day.

Like I said earlier, I doubt I’m the target audience for this and I won’t be buying anymore in the series. It wasn’t bad because I finished it but just not my cup of tea. (You knew I had to end it this way)