This one seemed to suffer a little from characters being ill-defined and the Gregor-Bennis romance/sexual tension drawn out more so than in the previous 21 efforts. Set in a private school, this outing sees Demarkian on his own - "Bennisless" - as he tries to track down a killer amidst a setting of New England liberal teachers and students, with a decent amount of sex sprinkled throughout. This, and the lack of the usual Armenian characters, is a new direction for Haddam and I'm not convinced it has worked for her.
I've been very well behaved and tried to ensure I read this series in order with the next three novels waiting patiently until this one arrived from the States. I can't say I'm greatly enamoured at present so it could be a while before I turn the pages of Hardscrabble Road.
Burn brightly, Pete
Have you read the Peter Temple books? He's Australian, I like his hero, whose name escapes me, and the stories are good.
ReplyDeleteLove Temple! The Broken Shore was brilliant and I've tracked down his previous efforts. Winner of numerous Ned Kelly Awards for crime fiction, Temple's books are a great read packed with wonderful characters and very Australian in their idiom. A friend was recently in Spain and was surprised/pleased to see his books available in just about every bookstore they visited while there.
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