Murder in the Morning - Betty Rowlands

Murder in the Morning by Betty Rowlands
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the second Melissa Craig book in the series and the second that I have read. Like the first, this is an enjoyable who done it in the classic mystery style. It's described as a cosy mystery, but as I've explained before, I'm not keen on this term. The book centres around Mel Craig, a mystery writer, who seems to stumble onto real life (or at least real life in the book) murder mysteries.

Unfortunately, for me, this second book didn't quite work as well as the first. There were a couple of things that just didn't work. One of the biggest problems is that this book is really showing its age. The attitude of some of the characters; forgiving men hitting women (it was just a slap) and just about every character being very homophobic and pearl clutching when it came to a lesbian character. The 'romance' aspect just didn't ring true either, what on earth did she see in the vile man? Nothing as far as I could I could tell.

The mystery itself was quite good, although I solved it a long time before Mel herself had a clue. In fact, when it came to the big reveal she was startlingly obtuse. Fortunately, she got there in the end, if a little slowly.

I wouldn't let this put me off the series. I think as long as you remember when reading it that this book was written quite some time ago it can still be enjoyable. I'd definitely like to see that she'd given up the romantic interest though, he's a complete waste of space.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.



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