Helpful Score: 2
I love a mystery with a 1920-30's time-frame. This is the first book for this author and I am pleasantly delighted with her characters and plotting. Although it does indeed have an Agatha Christie flair, her heroine gives us a deeper look into her thoughts and emotions. Her life is a bit complicated but in an interesting way. No noir stuff here!
Kristin D. (kdurham2813) reviewed Murder at the Brightwell (Amory Ames, Bk 1) on + 753 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings
A fantastic game of clue as the reader follows wealthy Amory Ames as she puts herself into a love triangle on holiday where a murder occurs and she must help find out who the killer is - it was so good! With quite the cast of characters, I would suggest taking a few notes so as the book goes along you can refer back to them. I had a time with the couples and remembering their quirks!
I absolutely loved this book. The twists and turns were perfectly timed and I loved the final outcome - the killer part at least. I am not sure I loved the outcome of the love triangle, but it didn't make me like the book any less.
A fantastic game of clue as the reader follows wealthy Amory Ames as she puts herself into a love triangle on holiday where a murder occurs and she must help find out who the killer is - it was so good! With quite the cast of characters, I would suggest taking a few notes so as the book goes along you can refer back to them. I had a time with the couples and remembering their quirks!
I absolutely loved this book. The twists and turns were perfectly timed and I loved the final outcome - the killer part at least. I am not sure I loved the outcome of the love triangle, but it didn't make me like the book any less.
Linda R. (wolfie123) - , reviewed Murder at the Brightwell (Amory Ames, Bk 1) on + 421 more book reviews
Was an excellent outing for the first in a series! Reminiscent of Agatha Christie! Invited by ex fiancé Gil Trent to a seaside resort to assist him in dissuading his sister from marring a cad, wealthy Amory Ames becomes embroiled in murder, mayhem and a love triangle! This is not your typical, pretty girl falls for the handsome police officer plot at all! Offers a new twist to the romance angle of the story......Have already requested the next book!
Ms. Weaver has written a tremendously good first novel! Though she is from Louisiana she has nailed the Brits very well. It was a good mix between murder, intrigue and romance. The heroine is Amory Ames, a young socialite. She has been married to Milo Ames, a charming playboy, for five years and things aren't working out so well. She stays at home while he goes to the continent and has a good time. Then her life gets turned upside down by the request from her former fiancé, Gil Trent, asks her to go to the Brightwell Hotel on the coast to try to avert his sister from marrying a charming playboy. Milo comes home early from Monte Carlo and finds her going to the Brightwell. He shows up later and all kinds of things happen: 2 murders, a suicide attempt, and Amory herself is drugged in her own room. How this all plays out is very fun to observe. This book is the first of the series and I highly recommend it. I've already started reading the 2nd book!
I like British classic mysteries of the 1930s/1940s very much - Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, Patricia Wentworth, et al. - so I was intrigued by this first in a series mystery set in 1932.
On a literary level, I don't think it compares to the authors of that era; the prose is in the simplified modern style. It does not for me evoke the mindset of the era either; it reads more like a catalog of clothes and manners seen in films (every outfit Amory wears is described in detail) rather than known or experienced by the writer. As a mystery, it's okay, but the solution is no surprise, really.
I kept reading not for the mystery or the attempt at period ambiance, but to see if the heroine would make up her mind about her feckless wandering husband.
On a literary level, I don't think it compares to the authors of that era; the prose is in the simplified modern style. It does not for me evoke the mindset of the era either; it reads more like a catalog of clothes and manners seen in films (every outfit Amory wears is described in detail) rather than known or experienced by the writer. As a mystery, it's okay, but the solution is no surprise, really.
I kept reading not for the mystery or the attempt at period ambiance, but to see if the heroine would make up her mind about her feckless wandering husband.
