Murder at the Brightwell

I'm a fan of the Electra McDonnell novels so I thought I'd give this series a try. I must say I think the author has come a long way in her writing since her debut novel. Not that it wasn't worthwhile reading, but I felt this one could've used some more aggressive editing, cutting unnecessary sentences and paragraphs, as well as some better mystery plotting.

It was about 50-50 mystery and romance but the romance bits were much more engaging than the mystery—and I am reading it more for the mystery.

I particularly felt like the author held her cards too close to her chest with regard to the characters. I didn't really learn anything notable about them until the reveal at the end. Up until then I didn't have many theories about who did it because I didn't know enough backstory about the characters to feel like they had any motive, and she didn't really create a distinct path of clues to follow.

I am always skeptical when authors are compared to Agatha Christie because they are almost never like her at all—her name is just a buzzword—but one way the author differs from her predecessor is that Christie much more focused on stringing together the mystery plot. It pieces together like a puzzle. This one didn't.

I engaged with the protagonists and the relationships so I intend to keep reading the series. I am hoping the mystery elements improve over time.

Meh. Wasn't great, wasn't terrible. Classic whodunit set-up. A bunch of strangers get together, one of them is killed and everyone is a suspect. My main complaint is that the middle of this book is a drag and feels like a bunch of nothing is happening. I found it quite easy for my attention to drift while listening and had to rewind often to catch myself up. The book definitely could have been shorter but the end was satisfying enough, so not a total loss. This is the first entry in this series but I'm glad I didn't start here, I likely wouldn't have continued this series if that was the case.

Audio notes: The narrator's voice is a great fit for this story and these characters, my only gripe was that for a couple of the male characters she elected this odd, stilted voice that made me think of these men were being held at gunpoint and forced to speak while holding their breath. It was really distracting and took me out of the story every time.