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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A disappointing book from this author, April 12, 2005
I would agree with others who have said that the ending was disappointing -- only I would have had harsher words -- there's a totally unnecessary "twist" that I could only describe as incredible -- meaning not believable. And the underlying "secret" is also incredible -- implausible -- you could demolish the whole idea in minutes because it doesn't make a lot of sense.
But -- the descriptions of living in an English cathedral town, complete with endless cups of tea and bad weather, have their charm, and perhaps that's what kept me reading. Also, as I was reading, I was waiting for an explanation that would make sense. It never came, but by that point, I was done with the book.
The plot involves secrets from the past that are being explored by an older hat-wearing American expat Dorothy Martin (who is married to retired British police inspector and living in a very old house in the Cathedral close). Bill, the octogenarian "boyfriend" of Dorothy's best friend Jane, has vanished, and no-one can find him. Then another character is found unconscious, the victim of an attack -- is it connected to Bill's disappearance?
In sum, this book just didn't deliver the goods as a mystery.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable until the disappointing ending, January 31, 2005
Fans of the Dorothy Martin series (and I am certainly one) will probably be happy with this book, at least until the last few pages. It is always good to be back with Dorothy and her husband and their friend Jane.
The hard part about reviewing this is that I don't want to reveal the plot. This is not one of the best of the series. There are a few logical holes which I would probably be willing to forget completely if I didn't find the denouement of the mystery so annoying. The windup of the entire book is a little hard to buy, but so charming that I'm happy to accept it, expecting to see the welcome addition of another likeable character.
The resolution of the mystery is very disappointing to me. I think that Dams may realize that she is on shaky ground and that is why she has worked so hard, a little too hard, to make the murderer unsympathetic - otherwise, readers might be wanting to help pay the defense attorney, er, barrister. I wonder why she developed such a plot in the first place. I cannot like the characters'(Dams') argument that heinous crimes become irrelevant with time, and that justice is unnecessary if the perpetrator's later personal life is disappointing. Extenuating circumstances are for the judge to consider when passing sentence, not a reason for the police to fail to make arrests. The murderer suffered disappointments too - why not gloss over the recent crimes as well? Only at the last do the police remark that it would probably not be possible to prove the earlier crime - it sounds more like a rationalization than a reason.
If this were the first Dorothy Martin that I had read I probably wouldn't read another, and I would certainly have given it a lower rating. Since I really enjoyed the rest of the books, I'll assume that that series are always a little uneven, and look hopefully forward to the next installment.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Murder among the World War II generation, February 24, 2005
When museum curator Bill Fanshawe vanishes just days before he is supposed to marry her best friend, Dorothy Martin swings into action. It's too late for Bill, and almost too late for his assistant--who is attacked in the museum. Dorothy decides the attack must relate to Bill's World War II service in the Royal Air Force. World War II veterans are a dying group, but Dorothy and her friend Jane are able to track down a few survivors. Still, what possible memories from a war more than sixty years in that past could justify assault--or even murder.
Dorothy discovers that sixty years matters relatively little to the English--who are still taking sides from the English Civil War of the 1600s. Those connected with Bill's air unit have strong memories--and continued anger over their losses and the way the war was fought.
Author Jeanne M. Dams's aging protagonist worries about her own health and future as she sees the decline in the WWII generation. Despite this, Dorothy is hard to really like--or identify with. Her leaps to conclusion--that Bill's death must have something to do with the war (because he hadn't done anything in the sixty years since?), yet her failure to really get at the recently donated items is hard to understand. Because Dorothy had relatively few stakes in the outcome of the investigation, reader interest is also reduced.
WINTER OF DISCONTENT is easy to read and engaging enough to be hard to put down. The 'American in England' approach lets American readers see England through American eyes--allowing the author to comment on aspects of society and history that an English protagonist would simply take for granted. I wish, though, that Dorothy could have been a bit more clever, endangered, or active--increasing my interest in the plot
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