I think a mystery novel has succeeded when it has, a little bit, failed: the puzzle is solvable, and solved, but the problem is unsolvable, and the tension between those two things is one of the things that most interests me in a mystery book. ...That said, regardless of who the murderer is or isn't, I don't think there's a world in which K.J. Charles would ever have had anyone except the one remaining wealthy straight white man standing be the actual villain...But perhaps having written this first Mystery Shaped Book, which is so clearly cut from the same cloth as the romances, she'll have a bit more room to jump from there to something made from a different cloth as long as it's in the mystery shape. Like those games where you can match cards on either suit or number.
I think this clarified a lot of what did and didn't work for me about Death in the Spires! I've been following K. J. Charles' book reviews for a while, and we both share a taste for vintage/Golden Age mysteries (including a great fondness for Keigo Higashino), so I was really excited when I heard she was writing a mystery of that ilk instead of her usual romance.
And I liked it, but I didn't love it and I think it's because ultimately the bones of this book are cut from the same cloth as her romances, and for something with a Gaudy Night meets The Secret History setup I was expecting 1) yeah something where I can't just automatically eliminate the suspects down to the wealthy white men and 2) a more disquieting ending? Compared to Tana French's The Likeness which it also shares similarities with, or the recent Higashino I read (Invisible Helix), the ending here was just a little too neat and tidy for me. But it's very much a me thing given mystery is such a comfort reading genre!
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...That said, regardless of who the murderer is or isn't, I don't think there's a world in which K.J. Charles would ever have had anyone except the one remaining wealthy straight white man standing be the actual villain...But perhaps having written this first Mystery Shaped Book, which is so clearly cut from the same cloth as the romances, she'll have a bit more room to jump from there to something made from a different cloth as long as it's in the mystery shape. Like those games where you can match cards on either suit or number.
I think this clarified a lot of what did and didn't work for me about Death in the Spires! I've been following K. J. Charles' book reviews for a while, and we both share a taste for vintage/Golden Age mysteries (including a great fondness for Keigo Higashino), so I was really excited when I heard she was writing a mystery of that ilk instead of her usual romance.
And I liked it, but I didn't love it and I think it's because ultimately the bones of this book are cut from the same cloth as her romances, and for something with a Gaudy Night meets The Secret History setup I was expecting 1) yeah something where I can't just automatically eliminate the suspects down to the wealthy white men and 2) a more disquieting ending? Compared to Tana French's The Likeness which it also shares similarities with, or the recent Higashino I read (Invisible Helix), the ending here was just a little too neat and tidy for me. But it's very much a me thing given mystery is such a comfort reading genre!