The Crow Trap

This strangely reminded me of Red Bones in the Shetland series, though this was written before I read Shetland first. It wasn't a bad thing, but I did find myself getting a little bored in places.

I admit: I thought I was spoiled when I started reading. After watching almost ten seasons of the TV show in a month, I thought it was time to read the books that inspired it.

From the start, I recognized the episode that was inspired by this novel. And yet despite that, I quickly learned that screen and page aren't a mirror. The source material was just as robust and full bodied as I had hoped. What did surprise me was that Vera doesn't make a full appearance until half way through the book, and even then is not the dominant character.

Fans of the show should be aware the book loosely picks out details from the book, enough that you will remember the salient points. And yet it was still a great read with far more depth than the show could give it.

Abandoned. The characters did not grab me.

Plodding. That is the most apt single descriptor I can think of for this book; it just seems to go pointlessly for the longest time without anything happening and, by the time Vera finally showed up, I was feeling irritable about how long it took to get going. Its very well-written; if I had a lot of time to kill, I might have enjoyed the slow plodding through the story but there are far too many other books on my shelf.

Thank you to St, Martin's Press who were kind enough to send me this free copy for review.