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Title: Murder at the Gardner : A Novel of Suspense: A Homer Kelly Mystery (Penguin Crime Monthly) by Jane Langton ISBN: 0-14-011382-7 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Predictable mystery
Comment: I picked this book up because I love both Boston and the Garder Museum. The author has clearly done her research. Unfortunately, it shows a bit too much. I read it three days after I visited the Gardner; I found myself wishing I'd read it before, so that I could bring it along to use as a guidebook. It sometimes felt as though the exposition on how Wonderful and Fabulous the Gardner Museum is (which it is) and where the Vermeer is placed (which I'm sure is correct) got in the way of the plot.
I should also say that I'm not a big fan of mystery novels where the killer is revealed early on. This was not a tightly-wound psychological mystery, so I REALLY wasn't a fan of the fact that the reader was more or less told who the killer was long, LONG before the conclusion of the book. It was a procedural. And I was thinking, "Okay, I know who did it, get to the point already."
That was a general problem with a lot of the plot-- things were a little bit too telegraphed for my taste, although I think that's a matter of personal preference. We're told who is in love with who, and we're given minor characters that are more stereotypes than anything else. When their stereotypical qualities start having a bearing on the plot, it irritates me, since these qualities are those that are not possessed by normal people out in the real world. Similarly, a bequest figures heavily in the book, and a big part of it is that no one knows what the bequest really will be. I-- let's just say I found myself wondering about whether or not the denoument of that plotline would ever have been played out in an actual museum.
On the other hand, I was really really anxious by one of the climactic moments of the book, which has more to do with the Gardner than the mystery, although a little of both. I was biting-my-nails anxious, even though I knew that the scene didn't really happen in the Real Life History of the Gardner. I love that museum, I really do. And certainly the book provides a nice overview of the place and its history and its eccentric but well-intentioned founder.
Rating: 5
Summary: lyrical and involving
Comment: Jane Langton's mystery novels always present a detailed and engrossing picture of a small, intricately structured world and the people in it (here, the Gardner Museum in Boston). Her writing style is hard to describe -- it's seemingly effortless, yet lyrical at the same time, with hidden secondary meanings sprinkled here and there. A really fine book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Lyrical combination of mystery and art
Comment: I was amazed to see that this book had only received one bad review. This is a wonderful book - one in a series of mysteries with a loveable absent-minded professor who speaks his mind and bumbles into all sorts of mischief while solving complex murders. The author also adds her own drawings, which are a nice touch. I highly recommend all the Homer Kelly mysteries-I have read them all - if you like your mysteries to have some weight too them. Not too fluffy, but not overly erudite either.
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Title: God in Concord (Homer Kelly Mysteries (Paperback)) by Jane Langton ISBN: 0140165940 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1993 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Dark Nantucket Noon: A Homer Kelly Mystery by Jane Langton ISBN: 0140058362 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1986 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Murder at Monticello (Homer Kelly Mysteries (Paperback)) by Jane Langton ISBN: 0142000264 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Thief of Venice (Homer Kelly Mysteries (Paperback)) by Jane Langton ISBN: 014029189X Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Escher Twist: A Homer Kelly Mystery by Jane Langton ISBN: 0142001848 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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