Official Review: Death Takes A Lover by Olivier Bosman

reginabally · Post by **reginabally** » 16 Oct 2014, 01:22

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Death Takes A Lover" by Olivier Bosman.]

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I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.

Death Takes A Lover is the first book in DS Billings Victorian Mysteries written by Oliver Bosman. It is a mystery fiction which will be published in eBook (Amazon Kindle) format in 31st October 2014. The story is about Detective Sergeant Billings Victorian who has been sent to a remote house at Yorkshire Moors in year 1888 to review the case of the suspicious death of Roger Thornton.

In the Hammerock House of the Thornton, there are 6 persons including 4 servants staying in the house when Roger is still alive. Mrs. Thornton is a widow with Roger as her only son, she adopted Bella Whitfield as her ward as she is always suffering from serious migraines for years. Apart from Bella, Mrs. Thornton has Wilcox as the butler, Martha Pringle as the cook and Gracie Brickenborough as the house maid.

After Billings arrives, he started the interviews one by one with the remaining members of the house except Gracie who has been admitted to West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum. During the interviews, Billings can sense that all of them are trying to hide some secrets from him. This makes Roger's death becomes more suspicious.

Roger is a very charming young man who is loved by everyone and he had abnormal affairs with some of his servants. Roger flirts with Bella a lot but she loved him as a brother and she's willing to lend him money for him to play cards with the locals in the neighbourhood. However, Roger is affectionate towards Bella. Apart from that, Gracie likes peeping into keyholes of Roger's room to see his naked body and Wilcox is willing to do almost anything to please his master Roger. Could Roger be killed because of jealousy?

When I read through the story, I don't feel any excitement or tense feeling as I read other mystery/thriller fiction. Every character in the book (including Billings himself) has their own dark secrets not to be told. The central of the story is not about Roger's death, but to show the inner demons of everyone in the story.

I gave this book 2 out of 4 stars because I don't really enjoy reading it but not hating it as well. It just doesn't match my expectations as a mystery fiction which should be entertaining and full of mysteries that will make me keep on wondering who is the killer. Another reason I don't enjoy reading it is because it has some content that I think is too dark and disgusting to me.

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