Review by Christina Lee -- The 11.05 Murders
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Christina Lee
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- Latest Review: "The 11.05 Murders" by Brian O'Hare
Review by Christina Lee -- The 11.05 Murders
[Following is a volunteer review of "The 11.05 Murders" by Brian O'Hare.]
2 out of 4 stars
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The 11.05 Murders by Brian O’Hare is the second book in Sheehan mysteries. It belongs in the crime/mystery category with a bit of thriller and romance sprinkled on top. We are first introduced to the plot with an attention-grabbing prologue of an unidentified man as his cold and calculating mind take advantage of others to pursue his goals. Then, the story moves forward to 12 years later and we are introduced to the main characters of the story. The main plot evolves around a female detective, Denise Steward, and her coworkers. Steward is a newly promoted detective sergeant and she struggles to form trust and partnership with her coworkers due to her past toxic working environment. However, she must build her trust and work together with her team to find the killer or there will be another victim waiting for her on the next Tuesday at 11:05 PM.
I am giving this book 2 out of 4. The book is a great introduction to mystery/crime genre to readers who are unfamiliar with the sort but the story unfortunately did not exceed the characteristics of a great book. It was definitely entertaining, but I won’t be re-reading it in the future to re-soak in the feelings that the book delivers to its audience.
First of all, the author has great analogies and description that make the story an interesting read. I really liked how he was painting the picture of an overweight co-worker whose belly was so big that he was “… putting excessive demands on the buttons of his shirts”. I could easily visualize this and it really hooked me up with reading this book.
But I had issues with his word choices. I understand that Woman Detective Sergeant and Detective Chief Inspector are long and wordy, but using acronyms to represent these words really threw me off. I had to refer back to the chapter to see if they were mentioned anywhere and saw that it was listed once in the beginning. The acronym itself didn’t carry much meaning regarding the plot but if the author wants the readers to fully understand his book, which I’m sure he does, he needs to mention the full name more than a few times in couple of chapters before using acronyms, especially when there are 4, 5 acronyms being thrown around.
Another thing is that he frequently uses words that are not necessarily university-level vocabulary, but not commonly used in everyday context, such as “vacuously, gormlessly, erstwhile, etc.”. It gets better at the other half of the story but the first half, I had to grab a dictionary to fully understand the meaning of these words. Yes – this book is not for kids due to its content. But was it necessary to choose such uncommonly used words to deliver the story? Was it also necessary to frequently visit such words?
Despite having such a page-turning plot, I was disappointed at the end of the book. When the book reaches its climax and the identity of the killer is revealed to its characters, instead of enlightening the readers as well, the author goes on without its readers. Literally, the characters are having a conversation of Oh-my-goodness-I-can’t-believe-he-was-the-killer while they are on their way to arrest him. The moment the author made this choice, he turned his book from mystery to a long Who-dun-it. I get that he wants the readers to be on the edge to know who the killer is, but that was a major turn-off for me. He could have continued on with the plot without having that moment of deliberately keeping the identity of the killer from the readers.
Furthermore, the biggest thing that made this book a 2 out 4 was that every event and character in the book happened for a reason; there were no instances to allow character development. Let’s say a character bought an apple in the book. Then we might assume that he likes apples. But instead, the book later reveals that the same apple has a role in the plot. Because of this, all the characters are shallow; they lack the traits that make them a colourful being.
Overall, I had high expectations for this book that unfortunately was not met. If you are new to mystery/crime genre, this book is for you. If you are already familiar with the genre and you are also looking for something special, perhaps you should pass this one.
******
The 11.05 Murders
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
Like Christina Lee's review? Post a comment saying so!
2 out of 4 stars
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The 11.05 Murders by Brian O’Hare is the second book in Sheehan mysteries. It belongs in the crime/mystery category with a bit of thriller and romance sprinkled on top. We are first introduced to the plot with an attention-grabbing prologue of an unidentified man as his cold and calculating mind take advantage of others to pursue his goals. Then, the story moves forward to 12 years later and we are introduced to the main characters of the story. The main plot evolves around a female detective, Denise Steward, and her coworkers. Steward is a newly promoted detective sergeant and she struggles to form trust and partnership with her coworkers due to her past toxic working environment. However, she must build her trust and work together with her team to find the killer or there will be another victim waiting for her on the next Tuesday at 11:05 PM.
I am giving this book 2 out of 4. The book is a great introduction to mystery/crime genre to readers who are unfamiliar with the sort but the story unfortunately did not exceed the characteristics of a great book. It was definitely entertaining, but I won’t be re-reading it in the future to re-soak in the feelings that the book delivers to its audience.
First of all, the author has great analogies and description that make the story an interesting read. I really liked how he was painting the picture of an overweight co-worker whose belly was so big that he was “… putting excessive demands on the buttons of his shirts”. I could easily visualize this and it really hooked me up with reading this book.
But I had issues with his word choices. I understand that Woman Detective Sergeant and Detective Chief Inspector are long and wordy, but using acronyms to represent these words really threw me off. I had to refer back to the chapter to see if they were mentioned anywhere and saw that it was listed once in the beginning. The acronym itself didn’t carry much meaning regarding the plot but if the author wants the readers to fully understand his book, which I’m sure he does, he needs to mention the full name more than a few times in couple of chapters before using acronyms, especially when there are 4, 5 acronyms being thrown around.
Another thing is that he frequently uses words that are not necessarily university-level vocabulary, but not commonly used in everyday context, such as “vacuously, gormlessly, erstwhile, etc.”. It gets better at the other half of the story but the first half, I had to grab a dictionary to fully understand the meaning of these words. Yes – this book is not for kids due to its content. But was it necessary to choose such uncommonly used words to deliver the story? Was it also necessary to frequently visit such words?
Despite having such a page-turning plot, I was disappointed at the end of the book. When the book reaches its climax and the identity of the killer is revealed to its characters, instead of enlightening the readers as well, the author goes on without its readers. Literally, the characters are having a conversation of Oh-my-goodness-I-can’t-believe-he-was-the-killer while they are on their way to arrest him. The moment the author made this choice, he turned his book from mystery to a long Who-dun-it. I get that he wants the readers to be on the edge to know who the killer is, but that was a major turn-off for me. He could have continued on with the plot without having that moment of deliberately keeping the identity of the killer from the readers.
Furthermore, the biggest thing that made this book a 2 out 4 was that every event and character in the book happened for a reason; there were no instances to allow character development. Let’s say a character bought an apple in the book. Then we might assume that he likes apples. But instead, the book later reveals that the same apple has a role in the plot. Because of this, all the characters are shallow; they lack the traits that make them a colourful being.
Overall, I had high expectations for this book that unfortunately was not met. If you are new to mystery/crime genre, this book is for you. If you are already familiar with the genre and you are also looking for something special, perhaps you should pass this one.
******
The 11.05 Murders
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
Like Christina Lee's review? Post a comment saying so!
Latest Review: "The 11.05 Murders" by Brian O'Hare
