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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A return to good form for the Victorian gentleman sleuth, March 4, 2010
This review is from: Death of a Wine Merchant (Hardcover)
After one or two disappointing books (with improbable twists and turns and last-minute revelations that violate all the rules of the crime novel), David Dickinson returns to better form with this mystery, revolving around the 'locked room' murder of a wine merchant at a family wedding. Sitting opposite the dead man is his brother, who refuses to say a word, even though he is found clutching the gun. An open and shut case -- or is it? Lord Francis Powerscourt is enlisted to help with the investigation, when members of the Colville family believe that Cosmo couldn't have killed his brother. But if so, why is he mute? Powerscourt delves into the family wine business (there are some great recipes for fake vintage wines in here...) and its management in search of a scandal that Cosmo might have wanted to cover up, even at the cost of his own life. This is an intriguing book; I was fascinated to read about the wine snobbery of a century ago, just as the middle classes began consuming wine at great rates in imitation of the aristocracy, and the frenzied competition by firms like the Colvilles to cater to them at the lowest possible price. Could that have cost Randolph Colville his life? Or was it a family scandal involving his wife or his child? Or a former employee? Or... There seem to be more red herrings and blind alleys than there is time for Powerscourt to explore them. The plot comes to a suspenseful climax when Powerscourt -- and Lady Lucy, his wife -- head off to Bordeaux, and then try and race back to London with some answers, just as the trial is about to begin... Recommended to anyone with a taste for crime dramas that revolve around the investigation; it helps to have read some of the earlier books in the series. This is the ninth book, and it's not quite up to the standards of Goodnight Sweet Prince or Death of an Old Master, but it's still a good read. One note: Dickinson's writing style can be rather formal, as if partly adopting the style of the era he is writing about. It doesn't detract from a solid plot or interesting characters, at least to me, but it means that those looking for blood and guts and less than gentlemanly conduct vis a vis the opposite sex (and certainly sex scenes) should look elsewhere.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Like reading cardboard, December 23, 2010
This review is from: Death of a Wine Merchant (Hardcover)
This was my first encounter with Lord Francis Powerscourt, and I shall snub him in the future. Given the lures thrown out to the reader -- great estates, wine buff history, business derring-don't, gentleman sleuths, and a bride with mysterious reasons to marry -- I expected a modern version of the "golden age" mysteries of Dorothy Sayers, and if not Sayers' philosophical depth, at least the quick pace and plausible twists of Agatha Christie. Instead, I got cardboard cut-out characters with stilted dialogue, described in a bland, yet wordy manner reminiscent of the paragraphs that how-to-write books use to demonstrate how not to do it. The plot seems (at page 104) to hinge on business decisions; and I have read SEC filings that contain more drama, livelier prose, and a more distinct point of view. If this style is meant to ape the prose of 1907, Dickinson should spend more time in the monkey house to develop a better ear. It's unusual that I don't stagger to the end of a mystery under sheer momentum, but the only way I'm likely to finish this one is if either I develop an impacted tooth and have to stay up all night or if Arizona suddenly has a blizzard that snows me in. Clearly somebody likes this series, since this is book nine, but that somebody is extremely willing to tolerate weak writing for the sake of a clever idea. (And reading back, my own writing has become weirdly stilted by contamination. Out, damned subordinate clause, out!)
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Tedious..., June 25, 2010
This review is from: Death of a Wine Merchant (Hardcover)
Sadly, in "Death of a Wine Merchant" David Dickinson is truly scraping the bottom of the barrel. This latest book in the Lord Francis Powerscourt series was tedious and convoluted. There are plots and subplots that go nowhere, undefined characters, gratuitous villains. A meaningless fountain. The courtroom scenes don't hold a candle to those of Anne Perry. I won't be buying the next book - but might get it from library.
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