An Unpardonable Crime: Library Edition

Rating:
Summary: Some interesting parts, too much blah...
Review: I am a big fan of historical mysteries, and had high hopes of one involving Poe. I found myself losing interest frequently throughout the novel. Other times, I just was confused. In the end, I just didn't really care what happens. Not horrible, but not worth the price, especially for a hardcover.

Rating:
Summary: What Poe's Got to do with this book?
Review: I loved Mr. Taylor's first book, the iridiscent Caroline Miniscule. I have tried to read his 'village mysteries' and found them rather heavy going. I just loved Quincunx (by Charles Palliser). I am surprised at some of the rave reviews this book is getting.
The atmosphere is fine, the characters, especially the women are predictable. Edgar Allan Poe is a small boy and the mystery involves his buddy's family. What's the point of making such a noise about Poe in this book? This is one of my main bones of contention with the book. The other is the over writing that has become the hallmark of most writers. Yes, I did read the entire An Instance of the Fingerpost, a much superior thriller. An average Regency mystery. I got tired of the repeated 'thrashing' of the students. So got the Crime Dagger for the best Historical Mystery! Left me quite cold.

Rating:
Summary: Who Calls the Shots?
Review: This book had lukewarm reviews in the national press, which seems unwarranted to me. I read it with absorption in every available minute over the course of four days.

Mr.Taylor's adoption of the late-Regency language and authorial tone -- adapted for modern readers -- is pleasing, and the England of that era comes alive. As far as I can tell, it is faultlessly portrayed; the setting [Dickensian London, Austen-esque country-house]is almost as important as the characters. We might think with good reason that Mr. Taylor has been impressed both by the books of Patrick O'Brian and by The Quincunx of Charles Palliser, all books set just a few years earlier in time.

And although anyone who has read The Quincunx will think of it off and on while reading An Unpardonable Crime, Taylor's book is nowhere near the harrowing experience -- so if you want to be harrowed, don't read this. Taylor is far more benevolent in his outlook than Palliser.

Instead, An Unpardonable Crime is a leisurely but satisfying excursion through the increasingly troubling adventures of an impoverished gentleman, thrown by accident into the bosom of a wealthy but sinister family. Certainly the mysteries mount up, the suspense builds. Our hero is in a perpetual quandry as to whether he acts or is acted upon: chance and will are equal forces here.