From the Bookshelf of Around the World in 80 Books…
Find A Copy At
Group Discussions About This Book
No group discussions for this book yet.
What Members Thought
Set in a thermal hot springs resort in New Zealand during WW II, this mystery features engaging characters and an interesting setting, but I'm going to say up front that the ending is a letdown. Maurice Questing is a longterm resident at the thermal hotsprings spa run by a retired British colonel and his wife and young adult daughter. Questing is universally disliked, suspected by the Maori people of trading in stolen holy objects, forcing unwanted attentions on young Barbara Claire, his hosts'
...more
Four stars for the writing but minus one star for hinging the mystery on an obvious conclusion, (view spoiler) and the benign colonial racism that you can't escape in this story.
...more
May 11, 2018
Nanosynergy
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction,
fiction-1940s,
series,
mysteries-thrillers-espionage,
2018read,
british,
new-zealand
Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn in New Zealand during WWII. Almost anything I'd share after this would be a spoiler. But just anticipate that Alleyn doesn't show up in the book until the end.
...more
This installment had a very slow start, and the plot didn't grab me. I really enjoy the fluidity of Marsh's writing, and even her bad novels manage to grab me, but I wish the plot was better developed. And I really miss the traditional setting, with Alleyn and his sidekick. I usually find WWII spy novels entertaining, but this one was just too blah, and I think the main reason was the fact that I didn't care for any of the characters. Even Marsh's usually detailed scene development couldn't save
...more
Listened to the audio version. I could visualize the setting as similar to the hot spring community I visited in New Zealand, but it read as too colonialist too me in the descriptions of the Maouri. I didn't guess the identity of the killer so there's that.
...more
May 30, 2022
Laura
added it
Oct 26, 2022
Julie Rose
added it
Nov 22, 2023
Nina ( picturetalk321 )
marked it as irgendwann-zu-lesen
