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P. D. James – Death Comes to Pemberley | Review

Title: Death Comes to Pemberley

Author: P. D. James

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 310

Rating: 3.75*/5

P. D. James – Death Comes to Pemberley

I picked this book up as a buddy read with some of my BookTube friends and I was pleasantly surprised by it. I haven’t read Pride and Prejudice and so I guess that counts against me, but I’m familiar enough with the basic idea behind it that I could pick up on the story here without needing to read Jane Austen. Although I will admit that now I actually want to, and that’s saying something.

The thing here is that there’s something just a little off about it, and it actually reminded me of reading the Enid Blyton for Grown-Ups books. You can tell that it’s somebody imitating somebody else’s style, but it’s done in a way that feels believable. It’s just not quite right. For that reason, I’m not too sure if I agree with this being published by Faber and Faber when it feels more like it should have been published by Quercus.

Still, it does read like what I imagine it would read like if Jane Austen wrote a detective novel, so that’s pretty cool. In fact, the two settings worked pretty well together, and I think that as long as you enjoy it for what it is, you’ll have fun. The problem would occur when you try to overanalyse it or to start talking about it as though it’s literary fiction. Granted, I’ve never really understood what literary fiction actually is, but I’d class this more as a sort of parody mystery.

All in all, I’m still glad that I read this, and I’m pleased to say that it’s also put me in the mood for reading the original Pride and Prejudice. I think that alone earns this one a thumbs up.

P. D. James

Click here to buy Death Comes to Pemberley.

Lucy Cruickshanks – The Trader of Saigon | Review

Title: The Trader of Saigon

Author: Lucy Cruickshanks

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 336

Rating: 4*/5

Lucy Cruickshanks – The Trader of Saigon

I picked this book up because I’m running an indie readalong with my friend Todd the Librarian on BookTube, but I realised after I started reading this that it doesn’t really qualify. It’s published by Heron Books, an imprint of Quercus, and it’s quite clearly been professionally edited and put through rigorous quality checks before it’s made it out on to the market. It’s professionally done, and rightly so.

This is technically historical fiction, because it’s set in Vietnam at some point during the mid-to-late twentieth century. It’s after the war, but before the country’s had time to heal. As for the plot, it’s surprisingly hard to talk about that without giving away spoilers. What I will say is that it involves people trafficking amidst the paranoid backdrop of communist Vietnam, and a dude called Phuc makes some very bad decisions after finding a gambling den.

Cruickshanks’ writing style is accessible and easy to read which means that it’s the kind of book that can just wash over you. She’s also fantastic at creating a sense of place, and it really kicks in right from the opening pages. You can almost taste the food and smell the markets. Cruickshanks has spent some time in Vietnam, of course, but simply spending time somewhere doesn’t necessarily mean you can write about it. Lucy can, and that’s a talent.

Lucy Cruickshanks

Sure, there were bits here and there that dragged a little, but that happens with most books. But the good outweighs the bad, and I enjoyed this quite a lot overall. I might not remember the finer details in six months’ time, but it certainly kept me turning the pages right up to the end. When it comes to a book, what more can you ask for?

Will I read the next one? Maybe. There are so many books and so little time. But I’d like to.