Rosie’s #Bookreview of Amateur Sleuth #Mystery Knives And Knightsticks by K. Lew and C.R. Lockhart

Knives and Knightsticks by K. Lew

3 stars

Knives And Knightsticks is an amateur sleuth mystery with a touch of romance set mainly in Toronto.

Investigative journalist Zoey lost her job and was blacklisted by other newspapers after a story she was working became linked to some high-powered criminals. Meanwhile, Zoey’s best friend and flatmate Sadie landed a new job working as a clerical assistant in a police station.

Zoey found a small job delivering served court papers, but at one delivery address she discovered a dead body and a kidnapped girl. Although the police arrived at the crime scene, Zoey’s investigative instincts kicked in and with Sadie’s help she decided to dig into the situation further.

In Zoey’s personal life, a handsome stranger paid for her coffee, then asked her for a date. It became a double date when she took Sadie with her and romance for both of them looked promising.

The chapters alternate between Zoey and Sadie; I liked the opening chapters for both of the girls and this is what attracted me to the book. The story is fast paced; at times, I felt it skipped over some aspects and left out points which would have made some scenes more realistic. Even amateur sleuthing needs to be believable and while I liked the concept of the story I would have liked to see more character depth and much more grit and danger. I prefer stories that involve Mafia groups to have a dark sinister aspect to keep me invested in them. Sadly, although I liked the opening chapters the direction that the authors took the story didn’t work for me.

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Sadie and Zoey, best friends and sharers of shoes, have both lost their jobs for Very Bad Reasons. Sadie ditched her lawyer boyfriend (who happened to be her boss) and Zoey followed her nose into a story that shattered her burgeoning career as a journalist.

When the story that destroyed Zoey’s career lands her next to a dead body, Sadie’s new job at the police station makes for the perfect spy. Unravelling the mystery proves to be more dangerous than expected, and the two find themselves wedged between romance, organized crime and deciding what shoes go best with a stakeout.

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Rosie’s #BookReview Of THE DILAPIDATED DETECTIVES by Paul Weinberger

THE DILAPIDATED DETECTIVES by Paul Weinberger

3.5 stars

The Dilapidated Detectives contains three mystery stories, each one solved by semi-amateur sleuthing duo Claude and Marjorie.

The first story is set in a retirement home and involves the suspicious death of one of the residents, while the second story concerns sex trafficking and the third involves a suspected serial killer. There is some humour as well as some good detective work from this pair of octogenarian investigators.

The actual investigations were the best part of this book, even if some of the action and events were rather convenient at times. However, I didn’t feel that choice of narrative style supported the solid mystery base. There tended to be a lot of ‘telling’ rather than ‘showing’ of the story from an all seeing omnipotent narrator which led to some confusing head hopping in places, while the quantity of cliches used took away the opportunity for the author to impress the reader with his own writing skills. 

I liked the idea of this book, but I really think it could benefit from the help of a good editor to lift  the way the story was told to the higher standard of the detective work.

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When an elderly lady is found dead in her bed at the Fern Lea retirement home, nobody suspects foul play. Nobody except two fellow residents, Claude Simmons and Marjorie Watson. Since no-one will listen to them, they form a detective duo and begin their own investigation – each at the age of eighty. They infuriate the retirement home manager, aggravate the local police force and along the way place themselves in considerable jeopardy. Against all the odds they solve the murder, leaving behind them a trail of considerable mayhem.

But they don’t stop there. Given their success, Claude and Marjorie are asked to investigate two more cases. They continue to develop their trademark technique of placing themselves in harm’s way and continue to create mayhem wherever they go. The perfect way to solve five more grisly murders.

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