Customer Reviews

The Herring Seller's Apprentice

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am on page 154 of this 206 page book and loving it so much that I thought I'd hop online to see if it is already well-known and possibly part of a series. Apparently not, yet. It is hilariously well written and reminds me a little bit of another recently published literary murder mystery, "The Writing Class" by Jincy Willett, which I also adored. (And I am not even a fan of murder mysteries...it's the humor and the character development and the writing angle in these books which delight me.) Despite my earlier reservations, I'm starting to like Elsie (L.C.?) and appreciate her candor. Don't know how it will end...but must get back to reading.

Think Agatha Christie and P. G. Wodehouse, whom L. C. Tyler mentions as one of his favorite writers, and you'll have an idea of how truly funny and intuitive concerning human nature this mystery is. The title, The Herring-Seller's Apprentice, refers to the sobriquet, the `Herring Seller,' given to the main character, a reluctant mystery writer, Ethelred Tressider, by his former wife because of the numerous red herrings he uses in his novels. Tressider is a writer writing about writing in the funniest, most insightful, ways as he, along with his chocolate loving agent, Elsie Thirkettle, try to solve the mystery of his missing ex-wife. Through various plot twists and hilarious observations Tyler takes his readers on a wonderful journey, and along the way they will meet some eccentric and intriguing characters. Fortunately this book is the first in
Tressider/Thirkettle series and is followed, so far, by two more. Highly recommended. Murder, That's What Gillian Hanson

Booth's wonderful cover art* made me expect delightfully eccentric characters, and the books did not disappoint. The contrast in characters between intelligent, educated, understated and reserved Ethelred and vulgar, crass, and loud agent Elsie is priceless. Sophisticated readers will not find the mystery very mysterious, but, after all, you are reading this for the pleasure of the language and the charm of the characters and setting. I also want to commend Tyler on the endings, both of them. In an age when even good books have poorly conceived and written endings, it was a pleasure to read two books with completely satisfying endings. I want more! More! MORE! from this writer.
*I bought print rather than Kindle editions of these for the sake of the cover art. Truthfully, as handy as the Kindle is for traveling and waiting rooms, I still vastly prefer print editions for any books that I think I will keep.

Disappointing British mystery after so many favorable reviews in the Amazon promos. Normally the cover would have put me off in that it reflects "cute" and as it turned out the cover is a good reflection of the contents. There just wasn't much in the story to get into although I did manage to wade through it.