Pallas Poppies

Too long, less than halfway through I swapped to audio. Deep dive into everyones life and the murder mystery ends up in the background.

We are now dealing with a fake book festival which could be a cute story on it’s own. Small village in English desperate to get some tourist and it all ends up to be a successful fiasco.

Not a real murder mystery, should have been a feel good book. Feel kind of cheated and I didn't care for any of the characters.

I got some Robert Thorogood/Death in Paradise vibes from this. The male MC was a bit like a hot and not as neurotic version of Richard Pool, Vinston has loafers and socks (”…because he wasn’t a barbarian.”) to the beach, he doesn’t like dog/cat hair, has an animal house mate against his wishes ect. And a bit fish out of water as he’s from Stockholm and down in Skåne but it got a little much for me. Like the male MC gets lost on his way to visit his ex wife and daughter and when female MC finds him her first words are, “You look like you’re lost. From Stockholm?”. Are there that many people from Stockholm getting lost in Skåne in the summers? There’s not from any other parts of the country?

Why did I not like this more? Didn’t really feel the MC’s, they are not unlikable but I didn’t really care about them or their families. They fell kind of flat.

There were puzzle pieces and I have read a few cozies without any clues so I did appreciate that (but that’s like the bare minimum) but the murder wasn’t that fun or creative.

Netgalley read.

Well written but I feel like there’s something I’m missing. I’m not that familiar with Macbeth so for me the story never gets starts and it doesn’t really give me any answers. I prefer the first half and then the ending feels a little rushed. I assume some more familiarities with the Scottish play might make this better. For me the story never gets off its feet.

Finally done. So… Sometimes when you read a historical book you can feel the author slapping you with the research they’ve done. This one bashes your head in with it. Characters dialog at times sounds like you’re reading a non fiction book. In fact this might have been better as non fiction

At one point, a young woman (a girl really) is pregnant and has just tried to get a dirty back alley abortion but runs away, starts to think of suicide and keeps a track of the new building projects around her and we get so much info on year, architects and whatnot. Like, really?

Repetitive.

Do I need 3 pages of someone getting dressed? No I do not. It could have been a shorter book and it would have made it better.

Also, all men except one is an asshole. Sigh.

It starts with a pretty terrible person complaining about how old people smell. Then she arrives at the book club where there’s a tone of other people and it’s too many all at once that I don’t know who’s who (and I don’t care). One of the women work at an old folks home and she hates old people and treats them poorly. One woman works at a bookmaker and dislikes gambling and gamblers. One woman really doesn’t want to get involved helping a teenager who has just lost his mother. And it goes on and on and everyone is just dreadful. We get to follow… um, maybe 5 people from the book club and 2 police officers, maybe. It’s a mess and I wouldn’t recommend this.

Some great ideas and all but not for me. It was too much internal. Too long. And kind of dull.

At least there was a puzzle here, some clues and such. The MC wasn’t perfect either which was nice but she is not pleasant so… another meh for me.

PS. Feeding your cat until it’s to fat to jump, that’s animal abuse and I hate it.