The Bridled Groom

Rating:
Summary: Uneven
Review: This book easily kept my interest, but at various parts I felt like I was hitting the wall in a marathon. I'm not sure why the book is as lengthy as it is. Many of the "events" such as the wedding, derby party, and horse show came off as contrived. It was as if the author struggled to imagine different scenarios to bring the suspects together for another clue to emerge. If that is the case, then what would have helped was some meaningful character development not just for the sake of writing a mystery. The chain of events should have been more seamless. The pace of the plot is very uneven, especially during the first third of the book which seems to get nowhere fast. As a reader noted in reviewing another of this author's works, detective Sarah is unmemorable, not fully developed. The fact that Sarah is a teaching fellow in English and that her husband is a doctor is wasted. They barely have presence in the story, in furthering the mystery, or in solving the crime. (The pivotal episode where Sarah gets to use her English lit background is pretty shallow.) Maybe one of the problems is that this "drawing room mystery" set in the Maine countryside makes too small of a world to create any sustained intrigue? Having said all of this, however, the book did manage to keep my attention for some reason. Very mixed review.