The Puzzle of Blackstone Lodge
Ratings3
Average rating3.3
15
Ratings3
Average rating3.3
"1930. Nell Fagan is a journalist on the trail of an intriguing and bizarre mystery: in 1606, a man vanished from a locked gatehouse in a remote Yorkshire village, and 300 years later, it happened again. Nell confides in the best sleuth she knows, judge's daughter Rachel Savernake. Thank goodness she did, because barely a week later Nell disappears, and Rachel is left to put together the pieces of the puzzle. qLooking for answers, Rachel travels to lonely Blackstone Fell in Yorkshire, with its eerie moor and sinister tower. With help from her friend Jacob Flint - who's determined to expose a fraudulent clairvoyant - Rachel will risk her life to bring an end to the disappearances and bring the truth to light. A dazzling mystery peopled by clerics and medics; reporters and rogues, Blackstone Fell explores the shadowy borderlands between spiritual and scientific; between sanity and madness; and between virtue and deadly sin"--
Featured Series
5 primary booksRachel Savernake is a 5-book series with 5 primary works first released in 2018 with contributions by Martin Edwards.
Reviews with the most likes.
I feel a bit misled by the premise of this one. I've heard of an unreliable narrator, but never an unreliable synopsis. While it's heavily implied that there's some huge locked-room history afoot, it's more of a town-with-a-dirty-secret story. And that's fine. It just wasn't what I expected.
There were things about the story I enjoyed. The characters were mostly pretty well thought out. The twist involving Nell was great. I can't get into details without spoiler tagging this, so I won't. The other twists I didn't love. And while it made me laugh, it was pretty weird that every death was set up like “Oh no, we found a body!” “My goodness, I do say” almost to parody status. Rachel was one of the weakest characters in my opinion, too.
My verdict is a solid 2.5 out of 5 rounded up. Which brings me to the next mystery...
How is this book carrying such a mediocre rating but all of the top comments are 4 and 5 stars? A little delving into the situtation and I, not quite Rachel Savernake, have found something interesting. All of the top comments are by people who received advanced copies. My goodness, I do say! I've heard of this, but this is one of the first time I've actually seen this happen on GR. Guess I'll try to stay away from the viral BookTok-y stuff for my own sanity's sake.
I really wanted to love it. I just felt the characters were really one dimensional. I kept hoping the life would come into the book, but it never did.
Brilliant concept and I loved the plot but the characters really bought the whole thing down for me,
2.5 stars
