Book Review: The Readers’ Room by Antoine Laurain @BelgraviaB

The Readers’ Room
Antoine Laurain
Gallic Books, September 2020
ISBN: 978-1-910477960
Hardcover

Violaine Lepage heads up the readers’ room of a prestigious Parisian publishing house. How she got the position is a story within the story. Violaine has been injured in a bad airplane accident, so she has to contend with a bad leg all through the book. Meanwhile she sees and speaks with famous authors of an earlier time, particularly her favorite, Marcel Proust. A little woo-woo here, or perhaps a bit of a wonky mind.

In the readers’ room, a group of four readers go through the hundreds, sometimes thousands of manuscripts (all on paper, for the purposes of this story) searching for the next super prize-winning best seller. Excitement abounds when young Marie finds what she believes is IT, a mystery written by someone named Camille Désencres and dealing with the deaths of four men.

To much acclaim, the book is hot off the press when the news breaks that two men have been murdered under the exact circumstances described in the book. Another is also found dead, and the book tells of a fourth. Certain they’re on the track of a killer, in a race against time the police search desperately for the author before the last death can happen.

All will be explained in the end.

I see this book is billed as a comedic mystery. Perhaps I’m losing my sense of humor, but I have to say I didn’t emit a single chuckle, never mind a belly laugh. That’s not to say the story wasn’t interesting. The characters are well-defined, the writing is good, and most of the plot follows through well. I did, however, think the reader is led to early conclusions that give no clue as to the way events work out. And really, the nonsense about everyone, including the police of two countries, being unable to discover the identity of Camille Désencres just didn’t ring true. Surely these people have heard of following the money.

Reviewed by Carol Crigger, December 2020.
http://www.ckcrigger.com
Author of The Woman Who Built A Bridge (Spur Award Winner), Yester’s Ride,
Hometown Burning and Six Dancing Damsels: A China Bohannon Mystery

Book Review: Practical Sins for Cold Climates by Shelley Costa

Practical Sins for Cold Climates
A Val Cameron Mystery #1
Shelley Costa
Henery Press, January 2016
ISBN: 978-1-943390-41-0
Trade paperback

Val Cameron is a senior editor with a NY publisher in a bit of financial trouble. The story opens with Val on her way to Canada to persuade an author to sign a contract they hope will be lucrative. The Canadian island resort she lands in is nothing like she expects, or like her boss, who owns a house there, has indicated. Far from luxurious and barely accessible, she immediately runs into violence at a community meeting she attends, hoping to meeting her author. Everyone on the island has an agenda. Those who want to preserve the land as pristine wilderness. Those who want to exploit the island’s resources. Those who barely eke out a living and want jobs.

And worse, the first thing she discovers is an old, unsolved murder that overshadows everything and everyone to this day. Including the widower with whom Val immediately forms an attraction, and the author she’s been sent to find.

The book is well-written, well-plotted, and quite literary in texture, with plenty of twists and turns. These aren’t characters who immediately endeared themselves to me, but that’s not to say others will have the same reaction. I liked the setting and the ecological aspects of the story. I did wonder why, although the murdered woman was always on Val’s mind, after two years and the death going unsolved, nobody else seemed terribly concerned or anxious.

Reviewed by Carol Crigger, September 2016.
Author of Three Seconds to Thunder and Four Furlongs.