First in series

Releasing as part of the ‘Occupational bookrong’

Taken from the Occupational Bookring.

This is a good story and I enjoyed it. BUT! It is Victorian mystery set in an English house and yet it is littered with Americanisms. Stoop and sidewalk are used and characters, even Conan Doyle use the word "gotten" Aaarrrggghhh! This detracted from the story as it annoyed me so much. Also the salary paid to Kate, £1,500 a year is rather excessive for that time. It would have got 9 stars if it wasn't for these facts.

A wishlist book for a friend.

Received from Dolph1n today along with some books for my obcz & lfl.

Thank you so much!

Death at Bishop's Keep by Robin Paige - Mixed

Sent to me as a RABCK by Dolph1n to grant a wishlist request.

Is it a curate's egg that is good and bad in part? If so, this is a curate's egg.

Let's start with the good. Kate Ardleigh is a young American/Irish woman. Having lost her parents at a young age, she has been brought up by family to be an independent woman capable of earning a living. Out of the blue she is contacted by her father's sister and invited back to England to act as companion/secretary. Something of a surprise as Kate did not know of her existance. She heads off for England in search of family and adventure. But what will Victorian England make of her?!

Living nearby is Sir Charles Sheridan: a Gentleman of independent means and enquiring nature. He's assisting at an archaeological dig by taking photographs of the strata and finds....until the day there is a dead body found.

Cue adventure and intrigue... of course the two of them are thrown together by fate whilst investigating independently.

The chapters are short and snappy. There's nothing too difficult or gruesome to tax the brain. Nice little story....but....

Oh dear, the writing! I can forgive americanisms on the chapters where we are listening to Kate's voice, but for Sir Charles!? He would never have walked on the sidewalk. Equally the servants would never have eaten bacon, biscuits and gravy. In Britain a biscuit is a sweet treat to dunk in a cup of tea. Still, I could just about forgive these lapses, but the attempt to write the servants speech in 'dialect' was atrocious, almost undecipherable and certainly nothing like Essex speech (where it is set) maybe some bastardised north country. It was painful to read.

Still, it's the first of a series which is never the best of the bunch. I read it because I was given one of the later books and hate to read out of order. I may well give the series a second chance because it was a nice undemanding cosy mystery if you can ignore the language.

Posted out to a friend as we can't meet in person.

Although this book is registered at www.bookcrossing.com, you don't have to be a member. It's perfectly OK to just take the book and enjoy it. Of course, if you can visit the website and let us know that you've picked it up, that would be even better - you don't even have to join, you can add your comments anonymously - you can also post your review when you've read it, then return it or pass it on to someone else.

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Thanks so much for the book parcel! Interesting journal entries, and good to have a heads up about potentially annoying use of language. Watch this space!

So, like previous readers I found there were some real clangers in terms of the language used. That aside, it was an easy read and the sparring between Kate and Sir Charles was fun. Like Cassandra2020 I haven't been completely put off reading more in the series should they come my way. Sometimes you need a bit of light reading.

And off it goes to Tanamo for the wishlislt tag game. Happy reading!

I think the PO must have been saving parcels up for me till the lousy weather stopped as I received four parcels today and this was one of them. Thanks very much for this wish list tag book as I do like a bit of lighter reading from time to time.

I love mysteries set in Victorian times and especially those by Anne Perry and hoped this would be in a similar vein. Similar it is but, as others have said, the writing is not so good. However, I think as the main character is American, some of that language is to be expected but not of course used by other characters. As this is the first in the series, it may improve and I will try more of this author's work.

Left on a bench outside Nat West Bank.

If you've found this book and you're new to this, welcome to bookcrossing! I hope you enjoy looking around the bookcrossing site. If you decide to join bookcrossing (it's free, so no reason not to if you're interested!) please feel free to list me (Tanamo) as the member who referred you. Even if you don't join I'd appreciate it if you'd leave a quick journal note so I can see where the book ended up - you can do it anonymously if you wish.