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Title: So-so
Review: Unofortunately, enthusastic reviews led me to expect more than Masie Dobbs could deliver. I bought the book in anticipation of ingenious plotting and interesting characters, overhashadowed by the Great War and all that implies. Unfortunately what I got was a strained plot, a relentlessly plucky heroine and a collection of characters right out of central casting. Devices used to create suspense were lamentably lame - one irritating example: for several chapters the author elects not to reveal an object found at the scene of the murders, but anyone who paid even the slightest attention to the title of the book is unlikely to be fooled.The one saving grace was the portrait of the time, inter-war England, complete with economic hardship, class distinctions and manners of the period. But it's hard not to think of Dorothy Sayers who did it so much better, with infinitely more subtleties of plot and character."Birds of a Feather", a pleasant, light read. Don't expect anything more.
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