Mysteries: More Murders, More Minor Misdemeanors, More Moors, More Pies

[Zorral]

7 hours ago, Castellan said:

  I agree I think any connection to the Searchers is a pretty superficial thing.

 

In this one though, we can be fairly certain as to who is the hunter of the title.

A very interesting crime novel, this one is.  It reaches so many points that would be endings or the trajectory to the end, but it keeps going.  One isn't sorry either.

However, unlike the author, there is a character with whom she believes more compelling than I do.  I am not quite buying  into her proposition that so many others care so deeply about this character's well being as the author does.  Nor can I quite figure out why they do care so much.  There is an overall flatness to what should come through with intensity, but doesn't.  But maybe that's my jetlagged reading sensibility?  Nevertheless I would highly recommend this novel if you have enjoyed the author's previous books, particularly The Searchers.  The side characters of that one come more more prominently to perception in this one -- and honestly, they are more interesting than the one the author loves so much.  They are indeed worth the price admission.

[Zorral]

C.S. Harris's latest Sebastian St. Cyr novel is out: What Cannot Be Said (2024).  It's lively from the first sentences, confirming the impression of the preceding volume that the author's back in form after a few rather sleepy books.  My guess is that the bam-bam-bam of military, political and environmental catastrophes for the world, and particularly for a sensitive person for whom New Orleans is truly in the blood and bone, have been hard for the creative mind to come back from to function as it did before Katrina.  For New Orleanians particularly, not 9/11, but Katrina was the signal of end times.

There's a detailed map of 1815 London and environs on the end papers of this volume, with the great Thames running through. This has to bring to mind of one who knows both cities, London and New Orleans, to notice this great similarity for the history of both, even though one is so much younger than the other.

It's 1815 -- Waterloo has been fought and won, in which London rejoices. In fact, it is toward the end of the Napoleonic wars that New Orleans population exploded, due to the flood of French refugees from both San Domingue, and Cuba, where they successful relocated with their sugar and coffee slaves and technology -- until France declared war on Spain. So, at this period, New Orleans is changing its character from Spanish to colonial San Domingue French, thanks to the wars and the insurrection that turns the island's name to Haiti, and the incursion now of Virginian protestant rule.

I had to stop myself from reading late into the night, forcing myself not to gulp What Cannot Be Said in one go!

[Castellan]

On 4/22/2024 at 2:45 AM, Zorral said:

C.S. Harris's latest Sebastian St. Cyr novel is out: What Cannot Be Said (2024).  It's lively from the first sentences, confirming the impression of the preceding volume that the author's back in form after a few rather sleepy books.  My guess is that the bam-bam-bam of military, political and environmental catastrophes for the world, and particularly for a sensitive person for whom New Orleans is truly in the blood and bone, have been hard for the creative mind to come back from to function as it did before Katrina.  For New Orleanians particularly, not 9/11, but Katrina was the signal of end times.

There's a detailed map of 1815 London and environs on the end papers of this volume, with the great Thames running through. This has to bring to mind of one who knows both cities, London and New Orleans, to notice this great similarity for the history of both, even though one is so much younger than the other.

It's 1815 -- Waterloo has been fought and won, in which London rejoices. In fact, it is toward the end of the Napoleonic wars that New Orleans population exploded, due to the flood of French refugees from both San Domingue, and Cuba, where they successful relocated with their sugar and coffee slaves and technology -- until France declared war on Spain. So, at this period, New Orleans is changing its character from Spanish to colonial San Domingue French, thanks to the wars and the insurrection that turns the island's name to Haiti, and the incursion now of Virginian protestant rule.

I had to stop myself from reading late into the night, forcing myself not to gulp What Cannot Be Said in one go!

Thanks for the tip!