Customer Reviews

The Silver Anniversary Murder: A Christine Bennett Mystery (Christine Bennett Mysteries)

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

 

 

I've been following this series since "The Good Friday Murders" and while this latest book is not as good as some of the earlier books it's far from a bad book. There's no way the reader could guess "who did it" based on the clues given early on but everything came together in the end. The one criticism i do have is it would have been nicer if Sr. Joseph played a bigger role in the story. Next to Chris she's my favorite charater.

This review is not specific to this book, but to the entire series. If you read the books in order of publication, you can't help but get caught up in the personal life of Christine Bennett. You have to admire her ability to reason out things that happened in the past to solve her mysteries. As someone who attended Catholic schools my whole life, I really relate to her relationship with Sr. Joseph. I wish Lee Harris would write faster so that I could read more of her books.

Enticing, with interesting twists that kept me avidly reading and guessing up to the end. But I don't give it more than three stars because I agree with other reviewers that you have to suspend reality a lot to read this book. The investigating police officer and even Chris's husband were violating law enforcement ethics and possibly jeopardizing the case when it comes to trial by allowing Chris access to crime scenes and sharing case information with her. Also I thought Chris lowered her own ethical and moral standards in this book by withholding information because the daughter asked her to do so. And why was Chris so gullible that she would travel all over the country with someone that she barely knew? The basic premise of these Chris Bennett Brooks stories is getting worn out - she isn't the ex-nun, housewife/mother, and part-time teacher any longer. She's really now a private investigator, so why not remake her into that role?

When you need to suspend belief beyond any reason in order to read a book, you know you're in trouble. And that's what this series has become...a suspension of belief.

Not only do the police encourage the civilian Chris to solve their cases, but they enable her by providing her with all their information. Even her husband, a NYC cop, encourages and assists her. They let her enter crime scenes with them, they give her names and addresses of witnesses so she can interview them, they allow her access to all their evidence, they inform her when new information comes in. Her husband supports her as she withholds information and evidence from the police, and as she leaves her five-year-old son behind to fly around the country chasing clues. Even the victim's daughter gets in on the act, refusing to talk to the cops, but telling her story to and teaming up with a complete stranger with no ties to law enforcement or her family, who was called in by her parents' landlord simply because she stopped by to ask him questions about them a few days earlier. And of course we get our dose of Sister Joseph with her cryptic clues, which always enable Chris to suddenly come up with the solution to the crime.

Having Chris be a housewife/mother/teacher no longer works. If she's going to continue to be involved in cases, then the author should make her a PI or send her to the police academy. You have to suspend so much belief where her involvement is concerned that it ends up taking away too much to make the stories enjoyable.

The author has a gold mine on her hands with her new Manhattan series, so perhaps it's time to let Chris and Jack ride off into the sunset and concentrate her efforts on Jane Bauer.