3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant! Couldn't put it down!, 11 Jan 2011
This review is from: The Butchered Man (The Northminster Mysteries) (Kindle Edition)
I only downloaded this book three days ago but I've finished it already. I literally couldn't stop reading it, I was gripped straight away! I found myself loving and hating characters as if they were real people, and even though I read a lot of books like this, I was guessing the outcome right to the very end. I hope there'll be more books featuring this duo, it's a long time since I've been so enthralled by something that I've had to read it by torch-light so as not to disturb my sleeping husband!!! Wonderful!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent read for fans of detective fiction and historical drama alike, 26 Sep 2011
This review is from: The Butchered Man (The Northminster Mysteries) (Kindle Edition)
I'm not a big fan of the whole bonnets and frocks obsession that seems to run through a great deal of both TV and literature and I tend to steer clear of historical dramas of both kinds because it seems for me to get bogged down too easily in eye candy of the sartorial kind. I have about as much fashion sense (or interest for that matter) as a whelk so I am wary of period fiction as much of what is written seems to spend what feels like weeks describing precisely how fetching someone looked in their new gown.
However, I like a good murder and the more brutal, the better. I've grown tired though of the complex and confusing contemporary murder lit, where the star of the show is forensic science and every one else is a bit part player. So finding Harriet Smart's The Butchered Man was a real treat.
Combine the best of CSI logic (though set in a time when virtually all the science we take for granted is unknown), the characterisation quirks of Brother Cadfael, and a dash of Film Noir and you have a thoroughly enjoyable romp through an old fashioned murder mystery with twists and turns enough to keep armchair detectives guessing. There's deep motives at play, some of the very deepest but in some way what endears this book to me most is the relationship that grows between the two main characters. It's masterfully done, steering clear of the typical father-figure mentoring it could so easily have slid into, and steering equally clear of the somewhat suspect bro-mance scenario a lesser writer would have gone for. This is a partnership of equals, but the men themselves struggle to accept this and watching their struggles to work together is adds a frisson of conflict and friction to the mix and stops it getting too cosy.
If you're a fan of detective fiction then you'll probably love this tale. If you love historical dramas, then I suspect you'll also love it too. Lovers of bonnets and frocks will be happy enough too, though there wasn't so much that people like me started yawning.
So if you fancy a taste of something a little different from your usual fare, then pick up a copy of The Butchered Man.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Book Review: `The Butchered Man' by Harriet Smart, 2 Jan 2011
This review is from: The Butchered Man (The Northminster Mysteries) (Kindle Edition)
`The Butchered Man' is a historical detective story set in the fictional city of Northminster in 1840. It opens with the arrival of Felix Carswell M.D., the newly-appointed police surgeon to the City of Northminster Constabulary whose Chief Constable is one Major Giles Vernon.
Within hours of Felix's arrival, a dead and butchered body has been found and so begins what is a truly page-turning detective story told from the viewpoints of Carswell and Vernon. With these protagonists, Harriet Smart has created a pair of detectives that I hope to see more of in the future. They move between the lofty dwellings of the senior clergy in the Minster precincts, through the homes of the affluent trades-people to the outskirts of the city where prostitutes solicit and drunkards brawl.
Both Vernon and Carswell are likeable but flawed characters and it is the roundness of the characterisation which makes this novel so good. I would have liked to have read a little more of the back-story of Vernon but I suspect that is being held back as further Northminster Mysteries are planned. I do hope this will be the case as this has definitely left me waiting for more!
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