Category Archives: Mystery

August 18, 2026 · 12:32 am

The Drowned: Meh

John Banville won some kind of award and now every mystery he publishes is like “from the author of this award” and so I was convinced to pick up The Drowned because I like a well written murder mystery as much as the next gal.

Only problem with this one – I read it a couple of weeks ago (guys, the summer is great and I have been reading and faster than I can find my way to write about them) and can remember Very Little which isn’t a problem of my memory because I remembered All of One Day, Everyone Will Have Been Against This and is instead a problem of this book which is very… unmemorable.

I recall it being a murder mystery with a first-missing, then-dead woman and the circumstances are Fishy and the investigator is… uhh… I think he’s a good guy but he’s no Gamache in the sense you do not care about him at all. There’s something to do with a love triangle and a very weird scene of the detective having sex with one of the suspect’s wives?

Honestly I’m just telling you about it so I remember I read it, but you should absolutely not seek it out. This is, indeed, why I have the tag category “books I’ll forget I read” lol lol

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July 12, 2026 · 3:37 pm

The Drowned: Skip it

Sean O’Brien won the Booker and now any book you pick up of his is like “this guy won the Booker,” and so you think you’re going to be getting an absolute gem. And sure, The Drowned was well written in that its atmospheric and well paced and writing that is good enough not to be noticed, but also it was about too many things and with characters that (I guess because it’s part of a series?) have too little and too much character development going on.

Ostensibly about the disappearance of a woman, Dee, under suspicious circumstances – the husband Armitage reports her as having ‘run off’ the book is more about the relationship between Stafford, the detective, and the others in his life (girlfriend, boss, partner) but without knowing Stafford from other books I was a little lost for why I ought to care about him.

And also a little unsure about the Irish politics (like the Catholics are bad?) and the time period – when are we? Why is everyone smoking so much?

Anyway, all this to say I wouldn’t throw it out a train window, but I also wouldn’t seek it out, and will absolutely for sure forget I read it.

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February 18, 2026 · 2:23 pm

When Will There Be Good News? (That’s the book title, but also)

Did I choose Kate Atkinson’s When Will There Be Good News for its title? Maybe. Because don’t we all want to know? When. Will. There. Be. Good. News.

Until that day we can read charming mysteries with well drawn characters and (what’s the opposite of graphic?) engrossing plots. Jackson Brodie is a decent detective, but I prefer his counterpart (and why isn’t she the #main detective?) Louise because she takes no shit and has seen some things.

Anyway it’s a mystery that is also literary fiction, or maybe literary fiction that is also a mystery? In this instance I kept waiting for the ‘gross murder’ to happen because that’s how mysteries have trained me, and there was some of that, but not really – more about suspense and secrets and building of connections and how does it all fit together. All while being well written! What a win.

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December 26, 2025 · 9:28 pm

The Black Wolf: I hate to say a bad word about Louise Penny, but.

I usually just say I love Louise Penny for the comforting and cute the Gamache mysteries. But I have to say The Black Wolf is pretty bad. Ack, it feels like such a betrayal to say so. But it is – a plot that doesn’t really hang together and/or is so hard to follow that you can’t be bothered, characters that are so underdeveloped they have to continually be reintroduced as ‘the one who Gamache is responsible for ruining’ or ‘the one who Gamache hates because he ruined his son’ etc, and an effort at being Relevant so ham-fisted and obvious (the Americans are coming for Canada) that you just can’t stop being annoyed the whole time you’re reading it. Like really – nothing much in this book that I’d recommend – it’s even short on the usually fantastic descriptions of casseroles and croissants.

I know you’ll probably read it – if the waiting list at the library or the tables inside Chapters are any indication – because there’s something about a familiar and comforting series that is hard to resist, but if I were you (and what am I doing here if not giving you unsolicited book reading advice) I’d absolutely skip it in favour of just about anything else.

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