I came to this book through curiosity and seeing it on another blog. Apologies but I cannot remember whose. Please comment if it was yours.
A schoolboy has gone missing and a nightclub singer appears in the only private investigators office in town, Louis Knight. How on earth is this all going to link up and will whatever is going on be solved.
This a rather original storyline, as Aberystwyth seems to have taken on another life form and become a parallel seaside town that maybe we would imagine it to be.
The local area seems to be run by druids. The police are clearly surplus to requirements. Re-enactments of a bygone age seems to be prevalent around the town, harking back to a previous campaign. If you want some sage advice then go and visit the ice cream parlour. All of this is on a background of a wet, seedy seaside town which I have to confess the author did with great skill and it leapt off the page.
However, all this aside I did not really enjoy the book. I am not one for ‘noir’ or ‘fantasy’ when it comes to writing. I think much of the book passed me by. There was some humourous parts, but I could not quite suspend my belief and reality and become absorbed into the story, to the point where I did not ‘get it’. Now why did I not just give up on the book? I am not really sure, probably the writing I cannot fault it and also the interest in something I knew nothing about – The Welsh Colony in Patagonia and the history around it. I then had to do a bit of googling to see if it was all true – it was. So whatever I take from this book, I have learnt something.
But you have to read outside of your comfort zone on occasions and sometimes you discover something new and wonderful, other times you realise it is not quite for you.
The Book Jotter 