Murder by Death

I liked this book the least of all 5 books so far.  The series presents a heroine with modern ideas in Victorian times.  She's rich of course, smart, independent and has a husband who supports these scandalous ideas of equality.  They investigate mysteries together, along with one or two friends they've made along the way.  It's been fun, mostly.

Until this one.  This book would have been about 30% shorter and less irritating if someone had just given Emily a flog at the beginning of the book and told her to have at herself.  Events in the previous book have given her a rude awakening about what equality might mean–rightly enough–but she positively wallowed throughout this book and didn't begin to resemble the character I'd enjoyed previously.  Colin too was something of an ass.

So, the story lumbered and dragged for me.  I disliked pretty much everybody, and I was certain who the killer was.  But then, towards the end, the last 25%, the story got exciting. I still pretty much disliked everyone, but events picked up pace dramatically and I was quite swept away in the excitement of it all.  Add to that I was totally wrong about who the killer was (although I get points for proximity) and the book raised itself up to 3 stars instead of the two I had planned to give it.

Here's hoping everyone pulls their sticks out in book 6.