Andrea Pickens
Auteur de Murder on Black Swan Lane
A propos de l'auteur
Séries
Œuvres de Andrea Pickens
Christmas By Candlelight: Two Regency Holiday Novellas 2 exemplaires
Old Flames Dance 1 exemplaire
Oeuvres associées
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Autres noms
- DaRif, Andrea
Elliott, Cara
Penrose, Andrea - Date de naissance
- 20th century
- Sexe
- female
- Nationalité
- USA
- Études
- Yale University (BA, MFA|Graphic Design)
- Professions
- graphic designer
author - Relations
- Word Wenches (writers collective)
- Prix et distinctions
- Romantic Times Career Achievement Award (Regency Romance, 2003)
- Agent
- Gail Fortune
Membres
Critiques
Listes
Prix et récompenses
Vous aimerez peut-être aussi
Auteurs associés
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 49
- Aussi par
- 5
- Membres
- 2,972
- Popularité
- #8,582
- Évaluation
- 3.7
- Critiques
- 187
- ISBN
- 147
- Langues
- 3
- Favoris
- 4
Don't get me wrong: I'm okay with a little romance as long as the writing isn't too purply. This particular trope (spunky girl/bad boy) is as old as moldy bread, but Penrose manages to keep things classy without breaking any new ground. (There are no brooding stares or throbbing organs, thank god!) Her prose style is wordy and repetitive (this could be 100pgs shorter without sacrificing anything of substance) and she has this weird obsession with onomatopoeia (things always seem to be going *crunch crunch!* or *clink clink!*), but her period research feels sound and her cast of supporting characters are endearing of not particularly original.
It's the accompanying mystery involving the investigation of the murder of Charlotte's cousin Cedric, an aspiring gentleman-scientist, that ruined this for me. Penrose's gimmicks is that her two protagonists are big fans of scientific method and critical thinking; they don't let their emotions interfere with their reason. But there's nothing logical about this so-called investigation ... just a series of silly assumptions and contrived dilemmas that provide distracting dramatic fodder but reveal themselves as preposterous if you actually bother to think about them, as I made the mistake of doing.
Characters behaving in a rational way, for instance, would presumably be bothered by the fact that the suspects they are investigating - while they may be involved in some shady scientific endeavors - actually have zero motive for committing any of the crimes.
Characters behaving in a rational way wouldn't rely on clues that are as problematic as - well, as problematic as Galvanism, a field of science that was briefly en vogue in the late 1800s but summarily debunked when it was discovered that while electricity can make the muscles of dead things twitch, it can't actually bring dead things back to life. (Yes, this was the scientific discipline that inspired Shelley's Frankenstein.) What rational person, having discovered traces of snuff near a bench in a highly trafficked public park, would automatically assume that it must have been left by the murderer? Is using snuff before (or after) you murder someone some sort of Regency custom?
Characters behaving in a rational way would find much, much easier ways to pursue their inquiries than repeatedly placing themselves in false dilemmas or physical peril.
And then the solution to the mystery, when it's finally revealed, turns out to be so strained and farfetched, wrapped up in a denouement so melodramatic and cheesy, that I officially gave up and skimmed the final pages in a state of disgust.
Come to think of it, this book actually has a lot in common with Galvanism, in that not even an unobjectionable current of romantic tension (or the story's cast of likeable if unoriginal hangers-on) ends up providing enough juice to animate the novel's labored and unsatisfying mystery plot.… (plus d'informations)