God Save the Queen!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing but not without its good points
Review: I liked Flora and Vivian even though they were rather colorless and drab compared to Ellie Haskell's world. But I was just so shocked by the story's mostly negative difference, that I don't think much of this book. I KNOW the author can do better than this. Don't I have the Ellie Haskell mysteries as proof? But this wasn't too bad and being shorter it was easier and quicker to get through than that other, Down The Garden Path. However the mystery was an utter flop. I'd guessed who the murderer was almost as soon as we learned of the butler's death, and though I did falter briefly in my conviction due to suspicious behaviour on an innocent's part, I knew it all. Which is downright spooky and says little for the story's merit, since I'm the kind of person that doesn't think and reason when she reads a mystery but shuts her brain up and lets the main character do all the figuring out! But no, it wasn't terrible...not really, though still very disappointing...and nothing like Ms. Cannells' other books.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing but not without its good points
Review: I liked Flora and Vivian even though they were rather colorless and drab compared to Ellie Haskell's world. But I was just so shocked by the story's mostly negative difference, that I don't think much of this book. I KNOW the author can do better than this. Don't I have the Ellie Haskell mysteries as proof? But this wasn't too bad and being shorter it was easier and quicker to get through than that other, Down The Garden Path. However the mystery was an utter flop. I'd guessed who the murderer was almost as soon as we learned of the butler's death, and though I did falter briefly in my conviction due to suspicious behaviour on an innocent's part, I knew it all. Which is downright spooky and says little for the story's merit, since I'm the kind of person that doesn't think and reason when she reads a mystery but shuts her brain up and lets the main character do all the figuring out! But no, it wasn't terrible...not really, though still very disappointing...and nothing like Ms. Cannells' other books.

Rating:
Summary: Author had good intentions, but story disappointing.
Review: I think what went wrong is that I had a lot of expectations to this novel and I thought I was about to read an "Ellie Haskall-like" storyline complete with that wonderful british wit and humor that this author so wonderfully puts to paper.

However, I could not get very involved with the storyline and I ended up "Plowing" through the book just to get it done. My only interest turned out to be the Silver Spoon that was missing for 200 years and I was looking forward to its recovery and reasons for disapearance than any of the murders. I didn't even notice that anyone had died. I appears that Ms. Cannell either wrote this as a first novel or she must have been in a horrible state of some kind when she did write it. I'm happy to see an addition to the Haskell series in "The Spring Cleaning Murders" and can't wait to read it. God Save Dorothy Cannell!!

This was not a pleasant read and it would have been better in the Cannel sytle of First Person writing.

Rating:
Summary: Author had good intentions, but story disappointing.
Review: I think what went wrong is that I had a lot of expectations to this novel and I thought I was about to read an "Ellie Haskall-like" storyline complete with that wonderful british wit and humor that this author so wonderfully puts to paper.

However, I could not get very involved with the storyline and I ended up "Plowing" through the book just to get it done. My only interest turned out to be the Silver Spoon that was missing for 200 years and I was looking forward to its recovery and reasons for disapearance than any of the murders. I didn't even notice that anyone had died. I appears that Ms. Cannell either wrote this as a first novel or she must have been in a horrible state of some kind when she did write it. I'm happy to see an addition to the Haskell series in "The Spring Cleaning Murders" and can't wait to read it. God Save Dorothy Cannell!!

This was not a pleasant read and it would have been better in the Cannel sytle of First Person writing.

Rating:
Summary: Not as thrilled as with the Ellie Haskell stories!!
Review: To tell the truth, I was disappointed in this book. I thought the story line was great, but the developement of the story wasn't as good as it could have been. I look forward to reading Dorothy's books! But this one didn't meet my expectations.