by Julie Smith
I thought a murder mystery during Mardi Gras where the killer is dressed as Dolly Parton would be entertaining.
And so it was – in parts.
I enjoyed the background information on New Orleans, a city that has always seems so exotic to me. And I liked Skip and her boyfriend Steve, and found Skip’s struggles with her body image interesting.
The story had an action packed finale that took my breath away. I really wasn’t expecting it, but Ms Smith had left the clues there if you were sharp enough to see them.
My problem was with what happened in between.
This probably isn’t the right time in American history to be reading about cops with a casual attitude to violence, some events seemed highly unlikely to me (view spoiler) and a huge cast of mostly unlikable characters. In particular it became boring reading about all of one character’s drinks – it felt like reading my local liquor outlet’s catalogue! We heard a lot about this person’s drinking as this book featured a format I rarely enjoy – multiple POV. This technique really slowed the book down, as we heard a number of characters views about the same scene & the book started to seem longer than 352 pages.
Just not my sort of book.
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