Themis-Athena's Garden of Books

Looking back through my "read" shelf, one of the books I liked least this year was John Bude's Lake District Murder.  I felt the book missed a monumental opportunity in not exploiting the dramatic setting of the Lake District where the action takes place, and I was also rather annoyed by the fact that the investigation into the murder discovered at the beginning of the book is sidetracked not once but twice -- admittedly into ultimately related crimes, but by God, the two investigative strains should have been much more intertwined.

That said, any reader adverse to last-minute surprise revelations and preferring to remain on an equal footing with the book's detectives will have absolutely no reason to complain here: Bude (like Freeman Wills Crofts) subscribed to the notion of "playing fair with the reader," so any and all clues uncovered by the police are laid out the moment they are uncovered (and in excrutiating detail).  For me, the resulting conclusions were altogether a bit too obvious ... but if this is your jam -- and it has to be admitted that "playing fair with the reader" was a maxim to which all members of the Detection Club subscribed (even though they implemented it in vastly differing ways) -- then maybe you should give Bude's writing a try.

Original review HERE.