Paula G. (Paulathegreat) reviewed A Veil Removed (A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel) on + 154 more book reviews
I got this book from a storygraph giveaway.
The plotting and pacing were both very good. The story line could draw you in and hold you.
The main weakness was in character development. The characters are mostly two dimensional and even stereotypical. The good people are good. The bad people are bad. All in a fairly stereotypical way.
The author seems to have cut her teeth on Victorian fiction. This has that kind of emotional intensity and language. The language of the bad guys is very reminiscent of the 30s detective fiction.
There were a few anachronisms. This is a Catholic family in the 1930s. Yet there is no hint of anti-Catholicism anywhere around them. If they were an Italian family and their whole social life was Italian this may have been possible, but they have a Dutch surname. Also the first book Elsie reads is the Bible. Yet in the 1930s, Catholic laity were not supposed to own or read Bibles. The Bible was on the Librorum Prohibitorum index until the mid 70s.
I do not understand why a certain kind of author includes gay characters in period novels. In 1936, homosexuality had a greater stigma than pedophilia does now. Even in the lower classes, one kept such private matters very private. People who were openly gay would find themselves in a mental hospital or a jail. Lesbians did not walk around with their partners, nor did nice Catholic girls just blow it off.
Overall, this book is a good escapist novel. It is not great literature or history, but it will hold you
The plotting and pacing were both very good. The story line could draw you in and hold you.
The main weakness was in character development. The characters are mostly two dimensional and even stereotypical. The good people are good. The bad people are bad. All in a fairly stereotypical way.
The author seems to have cut her teeth on Victorian fiction. This has that kind of emotional intensity and language. The language of the bad guys is very reminiscent of the 30s detective fiction.
There were a few anachronisms. This is a Catholic family in the 1930s. Yet there is no hint of anti-Catholicism anywhere around them. If they were an Italian family and their whole social life was Italian this may have been possible, but they have a Dutch surname. Also the first book Elsie reads is the Bible. Yet in the 1930s, Catholic laity were not supposed to own or read Bibles. The Bible was on the Librorum Prohibitorum index until the mid 70s.
I do not understand why a certain kind of author includes gay characters in period novels. In 1936, homosexuality had a greater stigma than pedophilia does now. Even in the lower classes, one kept such private matters very private. People who were openly gay would find themselves in a mental hospital or a jail. Lesbians did not walk around with their partners, nor did nice Catholic girls just blow it off.
Overall, this book is a good escapist novel. It is not great literature or history, but it will hold you
