Take Bertie And The Seven Bodies (Albert Edward, Prince Of Wales, #2) Formulated By Peter Lovesey Released As Hardcover
light reading The narrator's voice is amusing in his selfimportance and the ease with which he switches opinions or takes another's point as his own and the world of grand country estates with fleets of servants preparing delicious meals was deliciouslyth century English, but the characters were highly immoral and only offended at their immorality being discussed and didn't really appeal to me.
Also I KNEW the motive behind the crime right away, although I didn't guess the murderer, and actually found that part quite intriguing.
I don't think I'll look up any more in this series, The second book in this two book series, it did not disappoint,
Once again the Prince of Wales is on the scene of a murder and takes up the investigation to solve the case.
Accepting an invitation for a shooting party at Desborough, the county estate of Lady Amelia Drummond, Bertie is looking forward to an enjoyable time of shooting, good food, games and more, with interesting people.
It starts out fine, but during the first dinner party one of the guests falls face first into the dessert.
She is rushed to a nearby doctor but dies on the way,
Rather than cancel the rest of the event, the group carries on, Cancelling and having the Prince of Wales return home could reveal the death and create a scandal, Something the Queen Victoria would greatly disapprove of,
Bertie isnt the best of sleuths and keeps trying, Some of his solutions are a bit in left field, but he is determined to find the killer,
Meanwhile, a few more guests wind up dead, Can Bertie find the murder before everyone is dead
A fun read with humour and a persistent detective,
I enjoyed this book very much,
Although there were murders taking
place the author inserted much humor as well, A great Golden Age homage, Full review at classicmystery. wordpress. com I read this as part of the threebook omnibus called Bertie,
The Prince of Wales, Bertie, is jaunting around the country seemingly without many cares or attendants, He copes with a lady guest dying in the middle of dinner at a country house, but finding a man shot dead in the middle of a pheasant shoot next day makes him decide to play sleuth.
Best for those who enjoy historical crime with many references to the rich and famous,
I downloaded an eARC from Fresh Fiction, This is an unbiased review, The eldest son of Queen Victoria, Bertie will one day be King Edward VII, For the moment, though, his primary responsibility is to enjoy himself, a task at which he excels bedding society beauties, tormenting his longsuffering wife, and taking his royal bulk off to other people's country estates, there to shoot things, eat enormous meals, and pinch the serving maids.
It is at just such an estate that the story unfolds, though this is no ordinary shootingparty, and with a killer afoot, the glittering guestlist is dwindling rapidly.
Bertie greets the murders with some delight, as they allow him to exercise his passion for amateur sleuthing a task at which he doesn't particularly excel.
Lovesey wrote Seven Bodies as an homage to Agatha Christie, but he laced his classically structured puzzle with his own sly wit, gleefully poking fun at the pomposities of privilege.
Utterly charming what a delight! New York Times A delicious option for fans of Agatha Christie and Anne Perry Another clever murder mystery with Bertie involved.
Fluffy mystery. Not bad but Peter sure plays hard on the insipid and ego exaggerated school of thought concerning the prince regent and then King Edward VII 'Bertie.
' Only thru luck and the assistance of deprecating servants and
peers does Bertie conduct and solve the case, Alright for a quick read but I won't bother with another one in the series for awhile, The central joke in this is that the main character, the Prince of Wales, is kind of clueless and blind to his failings or weaknesses.
It means that the main character is really not sympathetic, In this second volume, there are some cute interactions where his cleverer wife calls him out on his nonsense,
I think Ill take a break before book three, but Ill probably read it, A fun takeoff on classic Agatha Christie, starring a bumbling Edward, Prince of Wales as the sleuth, This was fun! A blend of some typical Christielike conceits locked room, manor house party, countdown serial murders with a roguish ruffian Crown Prince for a bumbling amateur sleuth.
Definitely a little silly. It called to mind the game of Clue with its mix of stock characters, victims and suspects alike, Did not like Bertie as a person/ character,
Felt like it was dull, slow going read, Bertie, the Prince of Wales, goes to a shooting party, The first night, a woman falls into her plate poisoned, The next day, one of the guests is found dead, As the days go on, so do the deaths, Meanwhile, the Prince is trying to solve what is happening, They don't call Scotland Yard, and the party dwindles, The plot and story seemed a little silly, and not up to Peter Lovesey's usual work, This is a lighthearted murder mystery written in first person by Prince Albert, who fancies himself a topnotch amateur detective, His skills are limited, but his confidence abounds, The setting at a fancy weeklong shoot is interesting, and the premise is intriguing, Amusing Victorian era tale with the Prince of Wales as the amateur detective solving a series of murders at a country estate party.
Every blue moon I come across a character or property that, to me, seems egregiously obscure and underrated, This is the case with Bertie, Peter Loveseys detective and Queen Victorias son and successor King Edward VII, of “Im too fat, horny, and important not have a specially made sex chair” fame.
He should have at least one or two TV series under his belt, at least, Hes a riot. Picture a bumbling wannabe detective who also happens to be the heir to the throne, Oversexed, overfed, part Nigel Bruces Doctor Watson, part Inspector Gadget, imperious and selfimportant but understanding and funny, too, An English bulldog, essentially.
Once upon a time I acquired this book somewhere, somehowmaybe Id found it on one of those “best country house whodunnit” lists and bought it online or maybe I saw it in a shop and bought it because of the cover Arrow,: A Goreyish illustration shows a latter day Raymond Burr type at a dinner table looking over his spoon at a woman with her face in her plate, presumably dead.
I loved this right away, Such a clear, easy to read style, similar to Christie, Even more accessible because Bertie is a hoot right out the gate, Ive read a ton of golden age and fauxgolden age country house whodunnits and while the mystery here is by no means extraordinary the detective is.
Bertie kind of gives me book Agatha Raisin vibes: insolent, pigheaded, imperious, but somehow lovable, It scratches all the whodunnit itches and Lovesey has fun with all the staples: red herrings, cluegathering, deductions, misdirections, twists, etc,
Ive been meaning to read some Lovesey and now that I have Im bummed theres only three of these Bertie books.
Seven Bodies kind of reminds me of the Valentine and Lovelace books: eminently readable but not dumb, clean, clear, not a little frothyI hope the same can be said of the other two.
Recommended.
I have a novel observation for you, You better take a seat, Keep the smelling salts handy, Wenches, to your fainting couches, Gents, ready the brandy. Here it is Theres nothing better than a physical book: the yellow pages, the smell, flipping back and forth, reading the list of other books written by the author, maps and diagrams, dramatis personae.
Bonus parenthetical: Apropos of nothing, have you ever found the penultimate page of a whodunnit to be dogeared,