Murder Offstage

First I want to say that I listened to the audiobook and it was a solid, decently narrated book.

Now, I don't know how to rate this thing.

For the most part, I did sort of enjoy the book. I was originally intending on 2 1/5 stars rounded up to 3. But, when I didn't enjoy the book, I really, really disliked it.

For example, the resolution to the case was...really stupid. I mean, Posie was a decent sleuth - she investigated, things didn't fall in her lap (though she always had a thought/memory just out of reach, it seemed) and she does have a decent head on her shoulders. The resolution however did fall in her lap, along with several big ‘reveals' that took away from the mystery I thought we were investigating.

Which, admittedly, the mystery itself was lackluster. So, we have two murders and a theft and...we know who killed one of the people immediately and the other murder and the theft were...not the best handled, in my opinion. Really, this case seemed to want to be more historical thriller than the cozy mystery I was personally wanting.

All this wasn't awful - wasn't great either, but I could handle it. What I couldn't handle so well was the characters.

Posie is an okay detective. Unless she's around her employee or her business partner. Her employee is a woman that, right from the start she seemed to hate and be jealous of in turns. Her business partner is a handsome young man that she is already in love with. He has a ... girlfriend? Lady friend? I don't know what you want to call it, but there is a woman in his life that means when he and Posie kiss that he is cheating on her. Posie is facilitating the cheating because she knows he's spoken for and she still kisses him. And at the end of the book, Posie seems to think that his ‘friend' is barely a footnote in her and he being together.

Look, I can't abide cheaters. I don't even care anymore what the truth is. Posie thinks he has a girlfriend and she still kisses him and allows him to woo her. This and Posie stamping her foot like a petulant child at the Moriarty (and the book essentially saying that using those very words) made me loose the respect that Posie had actually, surprisingly, kept through the book.

It also made me decide to pass on anymore of the series because I was willing to give the series a second chance in hopes that I would like some of the other cases more than this one.

Sooo... 2 stars minus one for cheating cheaters who cheat. So 1 star.
(Enjoy this stream of consciousness review.)