Sunday, January 20, 2013

The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller

I don't read a lot of mysteries, but this book sounded interesting.  After surviving World War I, Laurence Bartram learns that his old friend John Emmett has apparently killed himself.  Laurence agrees to investigate for John's sister Mary.  But as one of the characters tells Laurence, "You're dogged but you're not a natural detective. . ."  What I liked about this mystery that was different from others I've read was that it presented Laurence's musings about the case as he learned bits and pieces.  Most of those musings turned out to be wrong, but it was interesting to follow.  There is a quote on the cover of the book that states, "The new Birdsong - only better."  I would have to disagree with that statement.  While I basically enjoyed the book and thought it was fairly well written, it was not as good as Birdsong in my opinion.  I rate it 3 out of 5.

2 comments:

Kathy A. Johnson said...

I do like mysteries, and I like ones where the "detective" is an ordinary person. I might like this one. Was Birdsong written by the same author?

Kathy A. Johnson said...

I forgot to mention in my comment that I just mentioned you in a blog post (I gave you an award, even though you don't do awards--you can just ignore it!) because I appreciate your taking the time to read my posts and comment on them. Hope you have a happy Monday!