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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The first is back in print!, August 28, 2000
Readers of Julie Kaewert's bibliomysteries (mysteries that revolve around other books, book sellers, authors or otherwise) will be pleased to read the first in the Alex Plumtree series. Unsolicited, first published in 1994, is back in print and really helps to set the scene for the next three in the series that are currently available - Unbound, Untitled and Unprintable. Unsolicited introduces the reader to Alex Plumtree, the dashing and somewhat bumbling owner of Plumtree Press, one of the oldest publishing houses in London, his brother Max who seems to be underfoot at every step, fellow publishers and the love of his life Sarah Townsend (he is smitten from a far which makes the tale of unrequited love a delicious diversion from the mystery at hand). Alex has gone out on a limb and broken with tradition - he has published a fictional novel that has proven to be a smash hit for Plumtree Press. With all of the additional media coverage surrounding the sequel, can Plumtree Press survive? Alex discovers that his smash hit might not be so fictional and the culprits behind the novel want him and anyone to do with the book dead. Who can he trust? Is Sarah, his one true love, in on the plot? What about his brother Max? Alex must unravel the mystery behind the novel and help to save the anonymous author's life - if he can just figure out who the author really is! While this isn't an edge of your seat thriller, Ms. Kaewert certainly can and does do a fabulous job of keeping the reader interested. Her characters are well formed, the plot is all in good fun but still captivating. Unsolicited certainly leaves the reader wanting more and lucky for us - she has given it to us in the next three books in the series!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Could be better, January 3, 2001
Overall, this story is an enjoyable read, if lacking in certain areas. It's really part mystery, part adventure/thriller, and I suppose part romance (the latter being quite unbelievable since the strong hero/protagonist, Alex Plumtree, is portrayed as a very feeble fellow in this arena). The attempted mix of British and American characters and scenes doesn't always work as most of the American characters are indistinguishable from the British ones. On the other hand, some of the main British characters don't use much in the way of British expressions, which makes them less than fully authentic. This book is not un-put-downable and is very slow going at first. Once you're past half way, things begin to pick up, but then again the author circles for a landing after the mystery is solved. Kaewert seems rather absorbed with non-essential character and story detail. Agatha Christie she is not. Even with its shortcomings, I would recommend Unsolicited to a British mystery fan. It still seems worth the read. I intend to read some more in Kaewert's series, hoping each subsequent story is better than its predecessor.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A bit bloated, but not bad at all., September 15, 2005
Julie Kaewert, Unsolicited (Crimeline, 2000) Julie Kaewert's Booklovers mysteries took a while to make it to this side of the pond, but I am one of a growing number who are glad they finally made it, even if they did take so long. Unsolicited, the first of them, spends (as do most first-in-a-series books) a bit much time introducing us to characters and their complex relationships, but that rarely gets in the way of a cracking mystery. While it's inaccurate to call this a cozy (the narrator is threatened with death a bit often for that), "hardboiled" is about the last word one would use to describe Alex Plumtree, the book's hero. He's thin, bespectacled, quite bookish (which shouldn't be surprising, given that he runs Plumtree Press), and an amateur at the whole roughing-people-up thing, to be sure. However, he finds himself forced into it when, at a press party, he narrowly dodges a huge roll of printing paper that comes crashing down from a ceiling, narrowly missing him and killing a friend of his who happens to be a noted book critic. Alex has himself a murder to solve, but things, of course, get far more complex when Alex begins to suspect that the critic's murder has to do with the next book coming from Plumtree Press, the sequel to a runaway bestselling novel by an author so anonymous even Alex has no idea who he is. Add to this his longtime and continually frustrating relationship with an American investment banker, and you've got the makings for a fun mystery. It does its job quite well (though in the end we find ourselves with the Least Likely Suspect rule hanging over our heads, proving once again that the journey is often more fun than the destination). There's some prose, especially towards the beginning, that probably could have done with a bit of stripping and sanding; the book's pace gets bogged down a few too many times in the particulars. Once it gets going, however, and finds its pace, there's quite a neat little mystery here. Fans of other authors who spend their time mooning over books will find this right up their alley. *** ½
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