Cozy corner books

Book title: A shot in the dark

Author: Lynne Truss

My rating: ⭐️⭐️.5

Book in a sentence: A mystery that felt confusing rather than charming.

The back of the book says:

Brighton, 1957. Inspector Steine rather enjoys his life as a policeman by the sea. No criminals, no crime, no stress.

So it’s really rather annoying when an ambitious – not to mention irritating – new constable shows up to work and starts investigating a series of burglaries. And it’s even more annoying when, after Constable Twitten is despatched to the theatre for the night, he sits next to a vicious theatre critic who is promptly shot dead part way through the opening night of a new play.

It seems Brighton may be in need of a police force after all.

My thoughts: I went into this book blind, expecting a cosy, coastal mystery that would make me laugh and unfortunately it just didn’t deliver that for me. I struggled to connect to any of the characters and as a result, I found I didn’t really care about what happened to them, or who the killer was, which isn’t ideal for a mystery!

The plot was also very difficult to follow, characters were introduced too quickly and the story seemed to jump around between situations without much introduction. because of this, I found myself feeling very lost and disconnected for most of this book.

What I liked…

Sadly I didn’t like much about this book, I went into it thinking I was going to love it and I was so disappointed that it missed the mark. Unfortunately, it isn’t one I’d recommend.

What I didn’t like…

The plot, the characters and the writing style all missed their marks for me. I understand it’s been adapted from a very successful radio 4 show, but it just didn’t work in novel format. I spent most of the book feeling confused and a bit frustrated.

I think you’d like this book if…

You’ve listened to the radio 4 show and are already familiar with the characters and plot – it might give you a better start with this book.