The Bachelor Girl's Guide to Murder by Rachel McMillanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I liked it. I definitely liked the premise of two young women interested in solving mysteries when it seemed to be a world only for men. It reminds me of the Canadian series Murdoch Mysteries or The Artful Detective. It definitely is not close to the Sherlock Holmes type of mysteries because the mystery is really only a side plot, not the plot.
Some scenes are quite funny such as when Jem has to wear pants that way to large for her and the fit misfires in front of the reporter, Ray. What a hoot.
There is a faint Faith aspect to the story. I am not keen on characters that are so 21st century that are placed in early 1900s. It is too jolting. An author needs to submerge herself in the era, forget about today's feminism, and deeply study women's issues of the era that she wants to write about. I can imagine this story taking place in the rebellious era of the 1930s or even the 1920s, but I don't think women had quite made it to this level of rebelliousness until then.
I give it 3 stars because the story doesn't seem to match the era and it made me uncomfortable. Also, I have read so many women detective novels that were written during that time, and this one has far too many modernisms. I suggest reading Mary Roberts Rinehart's Hilda Adams series (1914), Geraldine Bonner books about the switchboard operator Molly Morganthau Babbits, Agatha Christie's Tuppence Beresford, 1922, but most especially Loveday Brooke lady detective created in 1894 by Catherine Louisa Perkis to get a good sense of how women felt about the societal norms of the day.
What gets me is that authors today may set a story in history (no matter what era), but pay little to no regard for what society was really like during that time.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment