Monday, July 16, 2018

Murder at the Flamingo by Rachel McMillan

I had some difficulty enjoying this book. It is a murder mystery but the murder did not happen until past the middle of the book. The first real action in the novel did not happen until about a third of the way in. There is lots of prose, mostly thoughts of the characters. Action scenes and dialogue seem to take a back seat.

I found McMillan's writing style hard to follow. A new chapter would be in a new setting but that would not be revealed until the second or third paragraph. There were some sentences and paragraphs I had to reread in order to entirely understand them. I felt the narrative did not flow smoothly.

I found the setting of Boston nightclubs in 1937 was just not fun. I did not like all the alcohol and sleazy characters. The main characters, Reggie and Hammish, did not grab me and I had difficulty really caring for them. And I do wish there would have been at least a hint of Christianity included.

All that being said, McMillan did a good job of the historical setting, describing the buildings, the music, movies, musicians, etc.

My rating: 3/5 stars.

Rachel McMillan is the author of the Herringford and Watts series. She lives in Toronto where she works in educational publishing.

Thomas Nelson, 352 pages.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

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