1 star for the book–10 stars for the beautiful cover. Another long, slow slog through a mystery that only Lady Emily can solve. This is book eighteen in the series and it’s time to wrap it up. Nothing new in this one-Emily, Colin, and Cecile are at the Bavarian manor of one of Cecile’s old friends.
Seriously? Does this woman know and or has slept with every person in Paris? Yes, dear reader, yes. So much name dropping of artists and descriptions of artworks, and nobody cares.
The scene setting is awesome as our characters find themselves literally in the shadow of Castle Neuschwanstein. There is snow and scenery and foul things afoot. If this had been a brochure to lure people to the area for ski holidays, I would have been on the first train-Tasha does know how to set a scene. But other than that? Let’s take a look at the book:
First of all, there is so much skiing-by people that mostly seem very averse to the activity! They all ski and fall down until they are exhausted and must return to the house for tea and hot baths. Then they drink champagne until something else happens and they ski again.
The bad things all happen while the chateau/manor is snowed in so no police can reach them. Emily and Colin do their investigation ‘thing’ and eventually figure it out. By that time, I didn’t care and would have cheerfully murdered all of them and walked away into the snowy abyss.
As usual, there is a novel-within-the-novel that probably illuminated something in the main plot but, also as usual, I didn’t read it. I’ve fallen for it before and not again, Tasha! I read the main book and ignore the rest.
Let me complain for a moment about my main issues with this book: for a plot set firmly in Bavaria, with characters being specifically noted as hailing from Munich and Berlin as plot points-there is no effort to “germanize” them. If you take out those references, this book could be set at any manor house in England. I found it jarring but wondered if it were just me. I read some bits to a family member and asked ‘where do you think this person is from?’ the reply was: London! Not a big deal but it bugged me.
For reference, an earlier book in the series, Death in St. Petersburg (#12) was so obviously Russian that even if you changed the title to Death in A Place Where It Is So HOT All the Time the Murderers Are Sunburned, it could not have been set anywhere else. This one was similarly snowy but lost all the quirks that could have made it better by highlighting the speech patterns etc.
The other weird thing was absolutely no mention of Emily & Colin’s family–unless I missed it, they never say ANYTHING about their twins or their ward. Not even the odious Kat is talked about. To be fair, I skip through the parts when Tasha crams the kids into one of the story lines, but I thought it was strange to not even mention them or say where they are while Emily is playing policewoman.
The plot itself could have been interesting with the snowy landscape and all the ‘accidents’ and strangers with secrets at this house party; the first chapter had me thinking Tasha may have a handle on the series once more but, alas, no.
The story is thin and runs out of steam quickly. The supporting characters are one dimensional and since the weather has everyone confined to the house, Emily must curb her usual endless running around to ask the same people the same questions over (and over). In this book, she can only take them to yet another room in the endless art-filled chateau and ply them with a drink or two while she interrogates them, again. There is no depth to any of them and we learn nothing that advances the plot.
We are always, however, reminded that Emily does love to act like a police detective on the case. How in the world do the police in 1906 ever get anything done without her? Colin is or was some type of James Bond guy for the Crown but now he just wanders around washing Emily’s hair and skiing. How did he ever live his life before he fell in love with Emily and lost his mind!
As for her questions, no one knows anything about anything, everyone likes everyone else and has no motive for any nefariousness…until we find out in a quick wrap up of an ending that it was all crap. The secrets that are revealed are stupid and the big reveal of the ah-ha moment clue that Emily FINALLY figured out was telegraphed many chapters ago for the astute reader. So, unless you are a huge fan, feel free to skip this one. Maybe the next book will be better. 1 star for this one and I was given a copy to read/share my opinion.