The Grell Mystery

The narrator was excellent, aside from that I did not enjoy this book. The main detective was so pompous that I was rooting for the criminal. I also found annoying the constant reminders of how much better England was compared to the US or France because in England police don’t get information by force, and there’s such things as rules that English officers have to follow. This was a little unbelievable as the police officers routinely broke into peoples homes and lied to people. The plot sounded very much like it was written by someone who, for some reason, really had to suck up to the British police. If you took out the repetitive sections about how “a police officers work is routine and follows procedures and here are the procedures…“ The book would probably be about one hour and in that case, it might’ve been good. Perhaps the authors other books are a bit more polished, but this felt like clumsy first attempt at a mystery. Also, I’m normally pretty good at not judging past works by today’s standards but the part with the Jewish man was so antisemitic and cringy it read like something from Borat.

A mystery for those of us who enjoy the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It also has many of its pitfalls. The whole middle of the story was a bit of a slog, and while it picks up toward the end, there's also that epilogue in which the entire plot is dumped in one extensive piece of exposition. There's an "Ah-ha!" moment, but you'll never feel that you were given the tools with which to piece the mystery together as the book weaves its tale until the book literally lays it out for you all at once.

A wonderful tale, brilliantly read.