The local library’s Read Outside the Box program is coming to an end, and for my final book, I decided I wanted to read a mystery. Browsing around Book Girl’s Nightstand a while back, I was reminded (she mentioned her Murder on Monday group) that she was a big mystery reader. (I know that more of you out there are mystery readers; I just happened to be at her blog at the time.) And I found this gem of a book, by Iain Pears.
I can’t go into the plot; it would spoil the book. Basically, it’s the same murder mystery from four different perspectives. It’s difficult, writing from the perspective of four different characters (some you like more than others), but Pears does so very effectivly. And as a result, he gives us a wonderful look into Truth and Perspective and how subjective “facts” are. That alone makes this book worth your time.
The book is long and it sometimes drags, and I had to keep going back and forth between the sections to remember who was who. All the historical figures (whom I could never quite keep straight) had a tendency to muddle the story at times. But none of that detracted from the book for me. It’s a great murder mystery, and I thought the political intrigue and the historical elements give it a great feel. In the end, I put it down knowing I just read a fabulous story.
If I could find more mysteries of this quality, I’d probably read more of them.
The Book Nut 
You know, I have this very strange affection for odd little mysteries that I think are market for women a couple of generations above me- no sex, no gore, lots of historical or quasi-historical angles. Stuff by Carola Dunn, Elizabeth Peters, Mary Stewart, Rita Mae Brown. I was going to write about the mystery of my loving these mysteries for Estella’s Revenge’s April mystery issue. But life (i.e., death of beloved dog, and then one week later, my sister died after a long battle with cancer) intervened and I never found the psychic space to sit down and write. But it’s an odd little mystery why I should like these kind of mysteries. Because the other novels I read tend to be a bit more on the pushing the envelope, edgy, multi-cultural/ethnic side of things. On an unrelated note, Iain Pears shares a last name with one of my favorite (single novel!) authors, Tim Pears. I often get excited when reading reviews of I. Pears because I think that T. Pear has (finally) come out with a new book…and this happened again upon initial read through of your post! Sigh…
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Tim Pears’ <>In the Place of Fallen Leaves<> is the one of his that I love. He has a new one out/coming out, <>Blenheim Orchard<>, which sounds good, but I can’t vouch for it. Happy reading!
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I loved this book, even though the ending was a bit weird. Pears does a wonderful job of presenting the story from 4 different viewpoints. I read a little book by Pears not long ago that was terrible, though.
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booklogged– really?! I wouldn’t have thunk it. I didn’t find the ending weird at all. It worked for me.
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I just realized most of my books read in March were mystery novels. Yep, I’m big into mysteries šGlad you liked this one. I thought it was really well done. I agree, it dragged a bit towards the middle but nevertheless I couldn’t stop reading. Have you read The Name of the Rose? Excellent.Now I’m going to take note of some of the mysteries Turtlebella mentioned š
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Yep, I’ve read Name of the Rose, though it’s been ages. Probably the last good mystery I read, too. I really out to experiment with the genre more.
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