Customer Reviews

A Knife at the Opera (Superintendent Bone Mystery)

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I enjoyed "A Knife at the Opera" both for its realistic but sympathetic view of young people and for the well-conceived mystery. The slang didn't bother me - the English do use far more slang than we Canadians, but it wasn't hard to figure out - and I liked how the writers developed the character of Inspector Bone subtly and slowly. I also liked the relationship between Bone and his daughter, Charlotte, and her recovery from a serious car accident (done very realistically, by the way).

This was an enjoyable short mystery, and I'm actively looking for the sequels. I wish I'd have heard of these books before now, especially since the writers have apparently retired.

I almost gave up on this book -- my first Susannah Stacey -- which seemed, at the beginning, to be too clever by half.

The first part of the book is nearly incomprehensible. I've been a huge fan of British mysteries for decades, think I can handle most of the slang and jargon, but this book almost did me in. Part of the problem, I think, is that it's set in a girls school, and there is an astonishing amount of slang being thrown around -- I'd go page after page, not really sure what anyone was saying. Worse was that all the girls had several different nicknames for each other and for their teachers -- it was a guessing game who was speaking, or who they were talking about. Made 'War and Peace' read like 'Dick and Jane'.

I did like the Superintendent Bone character, though, so I stuck with it -- and by the end, once he gets away from the school itself, it started to make sense. A great ending saved it.

I might even look for another book by these authors.