Customer Reviews

Curtains in Stonington

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CURTAINS IN STONINGTON
Rosemary Goodwin has written a very talented story of murder and romance that will be the start of more books. The characters range from a very professional person to a widow who is lonely for attention and with all the country people made the town more alive for me. Curtains In Stonington, A Kate Bart Mystery is a great book for those looking for something different to read.

- Literary Nymphs Reviewers

- 4 Nymphs - An impressive read. Quality literature, recommended for anyone who enjoys the genre (s).

"Curtains in Stonington" is the first book in a new whodunit series. This series is set in a sleepy New Jersey town, which just happens to seem to have in residence, more British expats than actual Americans.
Kate, our protagonist is a home decorator, an ex-PI assistant, a widow, and a busy- body; which would make her a perfect foil for the types of shenanigans going on in this town. Her "friend" Dutch, our male protagonist is an ex cop who was Kate's late husbands best friend, has recently gotten his PI license as our first murder commences and isn't that just convenient?
While this mystery could have been a delightful one, it is hampered by Kate's nastiness, snarkiness and out and out witchiness. For example - In the earliest of chapters, Kate meets the eccentric Aunt and Uncle of her very good friend and her inner-nasty woman certainly comes out to play with her dealings and thoughts about these people. She also loves to make fun of the Americans in this town. This seems to be Kate's theme...to be nasty and to have nasty thoughts about those she has to deal with. As a matter of fact much later in the book, Dutch even comments about how nasty Kate can be. Odd.

I would also like to add here that, in my opinion, if one wants to be considered an author instead of just a writer, I don't think it's appropriate to make fun of another writers methods or research, even if one doesn't name names. It is obvious to anyone who reads certain types of very popular comedic mysteries, just who Ms Goodwin was alluding to.

The chapter headings that are based on decorating ideas would have been a clever devise had it not been for the fact that if you don't know what you are doing, some of the ideas could be very costly to you and one idea (making a dog bed from an old suitcase) could actually hurt a very small dog.

Consistency and continuity is another thing that the author or editor had problems with, and may pull you out of the story as it did to me.

The characters Of Kate and Dutch do a lot of inner dialoguing. When I read this dialoguing, I had to remind myself that, I was reading the thoughts of a forty and forty-five year old adults and not a pair of horny 14 year old children.

This book was a challenge to finish and for the life of me, I am going to be very careful about anything Amazon is recommending to me. I had read the other reviews and thought that for the price this sounded like a fairly inexpensive and decent way to pass the time. It wasn't.

Highly recommend this book for a fun,quick read. I found it delightfully entertaining. Hope she continues with the character in future books.