Customer Reviews

Unsolicited

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

 

 

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!

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.

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

This is the first of a series of thrillers exposing the working of the publishing industry (as Dick Francis exposes horse racing). Kaewert's hero, Alex Plumtree, a small publisher, starts in the Dick Francis mold (a determined, lone, moral, thirty-something), but is more garrulous, ironic, and timid, and is tiresomely subjected to the romance cliche of misunderstandings between destined lovers.

Unsolicited is a very mixed bag. It has everything--characters, books, beatings, murders, locales, speeding cars, love, spooks, gadgets, sailing--but not a polished author (maybe because it's her first mystery/thriller). After an awkwardly written start, it begins to roll and contains an amazing amount of incident, intrigue, and driving around London, parts of which grabbed my attention. But it doesn't contain the really fascinating insights into the publishing industry promised by the series subtitle ("A Booklover's Mystery"). (John Dunning does that for book collecting, in his splendid pair of "Bookman" mysteries). Instead this is a bit fluffy, a vacation read.

Kaewert's prose is a curious mix of English and American, perhaps reflecting her mixed background (and poor editing). Without the thwarted romance to pique one's interest the jury-rigged plotting might fall apart over its leaps in logic and "intuition" (which do, however, keep it moving right along, and closer to the concealed plotting behind the events). It's one of those stories in which both 1) just enough of the hero's history is given so you know why he happens to have exactly the skills needed for survival, and 2) of course no one ever does the obvious when they're beaten, burned out, or trashed, like go to the police. Bantam Books is determined you don't know which novel (of the 5) follows which (and perhaps the paper will self-destruct before you find out). So I can't tell you until I've read another, which I may do because I still found the subject and excitement attractive.

Alex Plumtree is very proud of his heritage, but as a second son he never expected to take charge of the family's small London-based publishing company. However, his older brother Max proves incapable of running it. Alex's first year at the helm goes smoothly and the company even has a bestseller written by an anonymous author going by the name Arthur.

Arthur writes a sequel "Those Who Trespass Against Us" in which Alex has everything but the final five chapters. The book centers on the kidnapping and selling of British children during World War II. When Arthur disappears, Alex panics because the financial state of Plumtree Publishing heavily depends on Arthur's book. Alex learns that Arthur's book is based on actual facts and events with a real person willing to kill even a publisher to insure that the book never reaches the shelves.

UNSOLICITED was first released in 1994 as a hard cover. It is being re-released as a paperback and is the first novel in the "Booklover's series." Readers will meet in this debut tale characters who have since become popular. The audience also receives interesting glimpses at the British publishing industry. However, the novel belongs to the fascinating lead protagonist, whose complexity makes this story and other tales in this series entertaining.

Harriet Klausner

I bought this book because it claimed to deal with the world of books, publishing and all things British, but after having read "Unsolicited", I have my doubts about continuing with the rest of the series. In this, the first installment of the "Booklover's Mysteries", a young man by the name of Alex Plumtree - who comes from a British upper-middle-class family, has inherited the family book publishing business after his parents' demise. Plumtree Press has always sustained itself with the publication of anthologies; but Alex always wanted to immerse the firm into the more lucrative fiction market. Just when he was figuring out how to accomplish this, an unsolicited manuscript lands on his doorstep, under the cocky title of "Deliver us from Evil". Nothing mysterious here, with the exception that its author has decided to keep an extremely low profile, and presents himself just under the name of Arthur. No last name, no return address, no phone listed; in fact, un-traceable. Nevertheless, Alex does not get deterred by this and decides to publish the book; a fictionalized story about a group of British children who were taken to exile during World War II and were ultimately sold to their new parents for profit.

After the great success of the first novel, a sequel arrives. More cocky titles here: this one is called "Those who tresspass against us". But when the final chapters miss the submission deadline, Alex gets worried. The mysterious Arthur has never been late before, and Plumtree Press needs the new novel to get back on its financial feet. Just at this time Alex realizes, through a series of mishaps - that in numerous cases come close to ending his own life, that the novel is a very much a true story; a sort of exposé. He starts receiving offers of all types; some very friendly and profitable, others not so. At this point I became disappointed at the novel, which from then on seemed more a story á la Disk Francis than the typical cozy British mystery it claimed to be. Alex's love for his bank loan official, an old friend by the name of Sarah Townsend, is a bit too much, not helping the story in the way it should.

"Unsolicited" might also have been called 'A Yachting Mystery', since at a point we are completely torn apart from books and the British cozy lifestyle to be thrown into what looks like "The Perfect Storm", of sorts. The ending is not satisfactory either, since many questions are left un-resolved, including the scene of an escape with a totally un-realistic and impossible outcome under the circumstances. It would have helped if the author had concentrated more into the theme of the book and less into the life of the main characters per se. People who choose to read a series of this kind will obviously want to dig more into the world of books. The fact of leaving things in the dark at the end of the story makes me think of Ms. Kaewert as a commercial author, interested in royalties more than in the pleasure of writing. I deeply dislike such authors, who are eager to become the "publishing machine" in such an obvious way. I will give the sequel, "Unbound", a chance though. I do hope to meet with more books and less yachts.

I picked this book up, not knowing it was part of a series. The story got off to a slow start, but -- wow! It turned out to be not just a mystery, but a thriller, too. It's a modern setting, but the plot involves children who were moved out of London before the bombings in World War II. I found the book really hard to put down! The author also adds in elements of the romance novel -- sometimes a little silly, but I didn't mind. I can't wait to try the rest of these books. Obviously, since I started with this one in the middle of the series, you can, too. I understand the first two in the series are titled "Unbound" and "Unprintable."

An unput-downable,"thumping good read" mystery which places the reader in the heart of London's close-knit publishing world. Has a thoroughly likeable hero, a chilling killer, and a charming love-interest. Can't wait to read the next in the series.

It sounds very promising - a mystery involving a publisher, a bestseller and links to the Second World War, set in London and New England, but... I was disappointed.

Unsolicited takes forever to start. I read and I read and I never feel the grip of the book until well into the second half of it. Then I'm annoyed at how the hero Alex Plumtree acts around his secret love, Sarah. He's pathetic. Then I'm annoyed by the slow tempo, again. And then...

There's nothing wrong with the story and the topic, it could have been a great book, but I don't like the way it's told now. I did not fall for Plumtree or Kaewert.

I love finding new authors and books I've not read. Unsolicited was a book I was not familiar with and Julie Kaewert was not an author I had ever heard of before. The book looked interesting so I gave it a try.

This is a mystery so I do not expect as much from it as I would a serious work of fiction. All I desire from a mystery is a quick read, interesting people, and a plausible plot. Unsolicited achieves all of those goals. I read to escape and this book was on target all the way.

The English element of the book was enjoyable without being too steeped in the dreariness of the weather or indulging in a stereotype of what the author feels is English culture. I do feel that Ms. Kaewert was too feminine in her male lead's attitude towards the love interest but I could overlook it. Other than that, the characters were believeable, interesting, and likeable.

I won't go into the plot because a mystery is a mystery. Suffice it to say, the plot was believeable and did not stretch the imagination too far. The events were exciting, well executed and lent a charm to the book that made me stay up late trying to finish the book. Unsolicited is not War and Peace but it's a lot more fun to read!! I recommend this as a light read to pass the time. And, if your life is like mine, you like those moments of light entertainment!