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Bear Caradog Mysteries #1
Patti DeVerre and The Case of the Missing Slingbacks
The new reading sensation, Bear Caradog, the number one South Wales gay detective.....
I can highly recommend the services of Mr Bear Caradog, of Caerphilly. His fees are cheap, his success rate is unmatched, and he knows the best bakeries in a fifty mile radius of Cardiff.
I'm sure you don't need further recommendations, but if you do, then why not try reading his own personal account of his last investigation, Patti DeVerre and the Case of the Missing Sling-backs?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Missing-Sling...
I can highly recommend the services of Mr Bear Caradog, of Caerphilly. His fees are cheap, his success rate is unmatched, and he knows the best bakeries in a fifty mile radius of Cardiff.
I'm sure you don't need further recommendations, but if you do, then why not try reading his own personal account of his last investigation, Patti DeVerre and the Case of the Missing Sling-backs?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Missing-Sling...
285 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 20, 2013
2 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 21, 2015
This had a lot of charm and humor. It needed some spit and polish from an editor and I’m not sure I followed exactly how things were wrapped up at the end, but I loved the character of Bear. He bungles and misinterprets his way through his investigations and he’s always on the lookout for his next meal, a real loveable lug.
I quite enjoyed learning about Welsh culture too. I googled frequently as I came across food, phrases and people I had never heard of.
I hope the promised book two is still in the works. I would love to spend more time with this sweet Bear.
I quite enjoyed learning about Welsh culture too. I googled frequently as I came across food, phrases and people I had never heard of.
I hope the promised book two is still in the works. I would love to spend more time with this sweet Bear.
May 14, 2015
(Patti DeVerre and) The Case of the Missing Slingbacks
By Jonathan Kennedy
Four stars
Bear Caradog is unquestionably the least competent private eye ever.
That doesn’t say I didn’t like him quite a lot: he’s a big, sweet, lumbering nincompoop. He lives with his mother, still has a crush on his long-ago-ex, Giovanni, and seems to think about food as much as he does about sex. The entire, very amusing book reads like an episode of “I Love Lucy.”
It is also very Welsh, filled with local slang, loads of local foodways and local culture that is marvelously quirky (even if it’s probably all spoof). It rather has the feel of that crazy series of comic novels by American author Janet Evanovich about bail-bondsman Stephanie Plum and her Trenton, New Jersey, neighborhood known as the Burg.
The plot is a mess of a shaggy dog story that, ultimately, leads to a sort of cliff-hanger, announcing the next book. But that was a minor concern. What really struck me is that, intentionally or not, Kennedy has created an image of modern-day Wales that is both a comical provincial outpost of the larger United Kingdom, but also completely connected to the global pop culture of today. Constant references (sometimes throw-aways, easy to miss) to the bumbling-but-astute TV detective Columbo, contemporary fashion, and gay life in the modern world, anchor Kennedy’s Wales in a world that all of us know. This is a Wales that has castles and ice slices, but also transsexuals and gay bars; a world where the Caerphilly plus-size underwear mogul Vivienne Hazelwood can be fuddled with the international fashion icon Vivienne Westwood.
It is also a benevolent world where Bear Caradog’s being gay is of no comment, while his bumbling professional skills are at the core of his troubles. Bear is a man who seems to lack a certain introspection. In his late 30s, he’s still very adolescent in his appetites and in his self-delusions. The big question in my mind at the end was not “will Bear solve the mystery?” so much as “will Bear ever grow up?”
I suspect we will get to know Bear better as the series rolls out, which just makes me anticipate the next book all the more.
By Jonathan Kennedy
Four stars
Bear Caradog is unquestionably the least competent private eye ever.
That doesn’t say I didn’t like him quite a lot: he’s a big, sweet, lumbering nincompoop. He lives with his mother, still has a crush on his long-ago-ex, Giovanni, and seems to think about food as much as he does about sex. The entire, very amusing book reads like an episode of “I Love Lucy.”
It is also very Welsh, filled with local slang, loads of local foodways and local culture that is marvelously quirky (even if it’s probably all spoof). It rather has the feel of that crazy series of comic novels by American author Janet Evanovich about bail-bondsman Stephanie Plum and her Trenton, New Jersey, neighborhood known as the Burg.
The plot is a mess of a shaggy dog story that, ultimately, leads to a sort of cliff-hanger, announcing the next book. But that was a minor concern. What really struck me is that, intentionally or not, Kennedy has created an image of modern-day Wales that is both a comical provincial outpost of the larger United Kingdom, but also completely connected to the global pop culture of today. Constant references (sometimes throw-aways, easy to miss) to the bumbling-but-astute TV detective Columbo, contemporary fashion, and gay life in the modern world, anchor Kennedy’s Wales in a world that all of us know. This is a Wales that has castles and ice slices, but also transsexuals and gay bars; a world where the Caerphilly plus-size underwear mogul Vivienne Hazelwood can be fuddled with the international fashion icon Vivienne Westwood.
It is also a benevolent world where Bear Caradog’s being gay is of no comment, while his bumbling professional skills are at the core of his troubles. Bear is a man who seems to lack a certain introspection. In his late 30s, he’s still very adolescent in his appetites and in his self-delusions. The big question in my mind at the end was not “will Bear solve the mystery?” so much as “will Bear ever grow up?”
I suspect we will get to know Bear better as the series rolls out, which just makes me anticipate the next book all the more.
August 13, 2013
I have enjoyed reading this book so much. It's funny and sweet at the same time. I like Bear so much, he's a bit of a cuddly fool by his own admission, but he seems to get there in the end. There's never a dull moment with him around.
Thanks Jonathan for such a good read.
Thanks Jonathan for such a good read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews