I don’t read much about Derbyshire in fiction, so I was looking forward to exploring the work of local author Jane Bettany.
Part of the Violet Brewster mystery series, the second book sees Ms Brewster on the hunt for an audacious murderer who killed at a local book festival.
It is not an author I have read before, although the name does ring bells.
The plot was great – who doesn’t love a good book festival? Add in a whodunnit and you’ve got literary gold.
Murder at the Book Festival by Jane Bettany
It was an easy, quick read, which took me a few days to complete.
I liked how the middle aged Violet is estranged from her husband and is exploring another romantic love interest.
So on that level it was good to see an older protagonist in the lead.
It is always nice to see other age demographics given the starring lead, and Violet was a nice character. I can’t think of her having any standout qualities or quirks, she was just there.
I wish she did something that I could remember, but her actions evade my mind at present.
The author’s writing style also really wasn’t my cup of tea, I felt there was a lot of ‘he said, she said’.
I did a quick ‘said’ search on the Kindle version of the book and the word is mentioned 910 times in 298 pages – which is probably why the prose felt a little on the wooden side.
The author has come up with a lovely story, I think the book editor needed to do more work on it to really make the text sing.
For more information about Murder at the Book Festival click here.