Once in a while I read a book for recreational purposes and enjoy it so much I review it. “Brittany Shores” is one of those. Having enjoyed travelling in that area several times probably influenced my reaction to the writing. More on the setting later.
One of the nicely handled elements of this book is the character relationships. The mandatory love interest that all detective novels must have is touched on very lightly, just enough to make the lead detective, Dupin, human but not enough to intrude on the important parts of the story. This also leaves an opening for potential emotional responses to the female characters involved in the case, especially those who are possible suspects (hint, hint).
Dupin’s relationships with his fellow policemen intrude into the story more, as they are the secondary characters in the conflict. And then there’s his continuing feud with the prefect (a running gag in the series) who seems to delight in driving him nuts.
The slant of the story that makes it stand out among others of its type is what I have to call the metaphysical. The mystique of the Isles de Glénan is key to the understanding of the people, and the ocean and its weather plays a major role in the murder evidence and in the progress of the investigation, and lovingly curls around the story and the characters, helping and hindering them in equal parts. Scenic descriptions are beautifully crafted, and short enough not to intrude on the action.
…except the first few pages of the book, which give fair warning of the importance of the setting to the story but lay out the scene beautifully.
The only impediment I find to the smooth progress of my reading experience is the complex and sometimes confusing sentence structure, given to parenthetic insertions of various sorts, which meander through the real meaning of the sentence and throw us off track.
The main conflict — the solving of the murder — is deftly handled, with the right amount of information doled out at appropriate intervals. We get just enough data to create a final response of “Yeah, I thought about that,” rather than “I knew it all along,” or “Huh?”
A great murder mystery, highly recommended for Francophiles and lovers of ocean scenery.
(5 / 5)