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Thursday 31 July 2014

Val McDermid - Trick of the Dark

review by showhost
I never thought I would say this about this author but I got to page 122 and gave up!  It was going nowhere very slowly.  Was this really the same author who wrote 'Place of Execution, Mermaid Singing, Wire in the Blood etc'?
So, what had we learnt by page 122 - most of the characters, so far, are lesbian, fine I've got nothing against that, but lets get on with the story!  At this point it was reading almost Mills & Boonish which isn't my cuppa tea.
Charlie is living with her girlfriend partner of 7 years but she has developed a 'love at first sight' yearning for Lisa, who is filling her waking day thoughts.  Charlie has blotted her copybook at work, a forensic psychologist, and is now on simple duties until her hearing.
Charlie receives an anonymous envelope in the post with newspaper cuttings of a murder case which is about to be wrapped up.  The victim was killed on his wedding day.  the bereaved bride, Magda, was known to Charlie, she babysat for her family when she was studying at Oxford.  The sender is Magda's mother, Corinna, who was one of Charlies lecturers and friend from her Oxford uni days.  Corinna believes that the couple who are about to be sentenced for the bridegrooms murder are innocent.  she believes the real murderer is Jay, the lesbian lover of her daughter Magda, the recent widow.
So thats it for 122 pages of reading out of 450 something.
 
It's almost like VM wants to promote the lesbian theme, as she herself is, but she is doing it in a very corny way with very cliched plots.  I don't care if she or her heroines are lesbian but lets get the plot moving, lets get some real twists and turns in the book before the reader (me) falls asleep after 3 pages each night; then have to re-read next day because I couldn't remember what had happened or who was who.  
Very disappointed.

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