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Book Review of Murder as a Fine Art (Thomas De Quincey, Bk 1)

Murder as a Fine Art (Thomas De Quincey, Bk 1)
reviewed on + 46 more book reviews


I was intrigued by the idea and impressed by all the rave reviews for this book, but in the end, I found it incredibly disappointing. The two detectives are boring and if one of them didn't have red hair, they'd be completely interchangeable. Emily is one of those "strong female characters" who's so over-exaggerated as to become absurd. (How many times do we have to hear about her stupid bloomers?) The dialog is awful, and there are long sequences in the book where the author drops in history lessons that have nothing whatsoever to do with the story. (Some authors can do this gracefully. David Morrell apparently is not one of them.) The book is mind-numbingly repetitive as the author pounds his reader over the head again and again with certain ideas (bloomers!!), but as for the actual story, there's nothing thrilling or intriguing or even very interesting going on.