July 2021 Value Read - Death on a Longship, by Marsali Taylor

[Chris]

Just started.
Opens with the finding of the body, then 50+ pages of 'how we got to here'. Good local and sailing detail but I'm getting a little impatient to move forward.

[Beth]

I am with Christina. Slow moving ......

[Chris]

Finished. I gave it 3 stars because it was a good story and the obligatory ‘let’s try to kill the amateur detective’ scene was mercifully short.

[Beth]

Sorry group. I am giving up

Story moving too slow and too much sailing jargon for a land-lover.

I love to read about islands but just throwing landmark names at me doesn’t do it

I am only at 30% of book and would give it two stars for this first 1/3 between the covers Maybe it gets better but life is too short to slog through something that isn’t grabbing your interest

[Bill]

Getting a late start but I quite like Cassie. Definitely my kind of sailor.

[Bill]

Just discovered Cass’s boat Khalida is a van de Stadt design. That woman knows her boats.

[Pat]

The sailing references don't communicate to this non-sailor. I'm trying to skim over them to the main story, but this "foreign language" gives me the feeling that I'm missing a great deal, as I don't know what the actions are. The many blank spots pull me out of the story too often for easy reading.

I'm sure it adds a great deal for those who understand sailor-speak.

[Bill]

Pat wrote: "The sailing references don't communicate to this non-sailor. I'm trying to skim over them to the main story, but this "foreign language" gives me the feeling that I'm missing a great deal, as I don..."

It's very easy to use google for unfamiliar references. I had to look up 'slab reef' myself.

[Beth]

Bill wrote: "google references..."

yes, and I often do that, especially if it's British idioms that i am not familiar with.

but I do agree with Pat ... the number of sailing references took over the story ... far too many to be googling every page. For the average reader, this just became a cumbersome chore.

I think likely this is a great read for anyone who is a sailor. But for the non sailing audience, the sailing references became a task that over shadowed the enjoyment of the mystery. The sailing issue was so much so that I gave up on the book.

I think there is a fine line between trying to find a unique setting and providing a good mystery. This book, FOR ME, tipped the scale too far on the sailing side.

[Bill]

Quite liked Cassie and may follow her future adventures. Americans were badly done, though. I’ve not heard anyone say ‘swell’ or ‘neat’ in years and why does Ted keep addressing Mcrae as ‘lieutenant’?

[JenniferAustin]

I am still waiting for this to arrive at the library, but will give it a try when it comes in!

[[deleted user]]

I've just started this one and am really enjoying it so far. It's unusual.