Welcome to Litsy!

I should have adored this! Look at the cover! Meta-mysteries are my thing, and this novel of two halves should have been a winner.

Although the concept was excellent, the execution was mediocre.

For some reason, the writing didn't breathe life into the plot. It felt more like a list of stuff that happened and I had to keep re-reading because none of it stuck in my mind.

Excellent ideas, but bland characters and guessable twists.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one flips!

I've only read one other book that does something similar: Ali Smith's How to be both.

I bought it because of the cover. Who could resist that deliciously baroque-looking manor?

Disclaimer: looks baroque to me, but what do I know about architecture?

England 1880s, Dr Simeon Lee arrives at the house of his cousin, Parson Oliver Hawes. Oliver is ill but believes he is being poisoned & there doesn't seem to be any shortage of suspects: is it the two servants, or is it one of the townsfolk in the neighbouring village, or is it Florence Hawes? Once married to Oliver's brother, James, Florence killed him in a rage over another woman & she now lives behind a glass wall in Turnglass House. (Cont'd)

'You want to look through the books?'

'I do. I'm always fascinated by other people's reading habits.'

'Me too.'

So true!!!

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

The first line of the 1930s part of the tagged book is:

Ken Kourian's eyes, pale green like thirsty grass, bent to the coffee-stained page in front of him.

#Gladstonerds #GladstonesLibrary #ReadingRetreat

Since I have both @julesG 's copy, and the one I decided to buy for myself at the last moment, I can show you all the front and the back at the same time. Or is it the front and the front?

#ARC #MountARC #NetGalley

Simeon, young doctor in Victorian London, is visiting a distant cousin who's had health problems for a few days. The cousin lives in Turnglass House on a small remote island off the coast of Essex. He's warden to his sister-in-law, who killed her husband in a flash of rage and it was house arrest or Bedlam.

Simeon wants to help the cousin, as well as the imprisoned Florence. But how, when no one wants to tell him ⬇️

I saw this book I n this months Booktime magazine. A mystery across two separate stories where you turn the book over half way through to read the other half and one informs the other… sounds intriguing… possibly gimmicky but intriguing.