If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy O

Rating:
Summary: A disappointing McCrumb novel
Review: What is usually a morally sound book took a nosedive for the trash can. I didn't appreciate the inside scoop on officer Atwood's wildly running hormones as he interviewed a teenage girl. That was totally out of character. And why the one night fling between LeDonne and Martha? What point did that prove? Also, we were privy to an adolescent's sexual fantasies, that stupid kid at the end. Come on McCrumb, step up out of the gutter.

Rating:
Summary: Good characterizations, poor mystery
Review: While the writing was smooth and the characters engrossing, the "mystery" at the center was somewhat flimsy. The whodunnit was clear from the very beginning, for our murderer serves no other role in the story so his very presence makes his guilt clear. It's always annoying to the reader when s/he spends the novel waiting for the characters to catch up. That said, the folks of Appalachia that McCrumb introduces us to are well worth meeting, and well worth following in later books in the series, which, I am happy to say, not only rely less on the mystery as plot device, but also devise better mysteries.

Rating:
Summary: Good characterizations, poor mystery
Review: While the writing was smooth and the characters engrossing, the "mystery" at the center was somewhat flimsy. The whodunnit was clear from the very beginning, for our murderer serves no other role in the story so his very presence makes his guilt clear. It's always annoying to the reader when s/he spends the novel waiting for the characters to catch up. That said, the folks of Appalachia that McCrumb introduces us to are well worth meeting, and well worth following in later books in the series, which, I am happy to say, not only rely less on the mystery as plot device, but also devise better mysteries.