Review: The Faraway Inn

The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Narrated by Soneela Nankani
Presented by Macmillan

This one might have just been a little too cosy for my action-loving heart.

A young girl, Calisa, goes to help her eccentric great-aunt at The Faraway Inn for the summer, but her great-aunt doesn't want her there. Seeing the place is quite rundown, Calisa decides if she helps to fix it up, she might be allowed to stay.

For me, this was just a little too slow to start with the fantasy. There's a lot about Calisa escaping an ex, about how rundown the place is, and how handsome the local lad is. Then the great-aunt tells her she can't stay, and it becomes all about cooking and cleaning.

Some odd things happen, suggesting the magic we're really here for, but nothing really gets started in that direction for a while. I found myself waiting for something exciting to happen.

Finally, when the whimsy comes it is indeed quite sweet and fun, with quite a wholesome feel to it all.

The narration was pretty solid, if a little slow. There are a lot of characters and the narrator did a fair job of giving them all unique voices, while injecting life into the story.

The vibes are very strong cosy fantasy, where everyone dreams of settling into the routine of maintaining a magical B&B. So if you like that kinda thing, you should adore this one.

A little too slow for my personal tastes, but a wonderfully whimsical story for the cosy-fantasy-inclined.

With thanks to NetGalley for an audio ARC

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Review: The Lady Killer

The Lady Killer by Masako Togawa
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another one that missed the mark a little, but was still an enjoyable mystery.

It's broken into a couple parts - first, from the perspective of the Lady Killer himself then later from the viewpoint of a lawyer working on the case.

I really enjoyed how it started, with some interesting aspects to the murders and their strange connection to one particular man. But the murders came hard and fast until it was soon just a jumble of information with no real space or time to work out what was happening.

When I read about the lawyer and his various visits to find clues, I found it hard to follow at times. I wasn't quite sure on the logic of some of it, and other clues didn't seem to fit very well at all. Then there was the thin attachment to his own personal life, without really giving us time to be invested in him as a character. I wonder if maybe some of the emotion was lost in translation.

The solution wasn't the creative breakdown I've come to expect from Japanese detective novels, despite a plethora of strange clues and red herrings. At no point were all the dots connected clearly and cleanly - it all felt a little jumbled and stretched at the end, making for an unsatisfying conclusion.

I did still really enjoy the setup, and the nature of the murders was curious and enough to keep me interested and invested. It's not one of the strongest of the genre, but there's still enough here that I'd recommend it for fans of Japanese detective stories. The writing style is unique and always a fun experience.

With thanks to NetGalley for an ARC

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Review: Strange Pictures

Strange Pictures by Uketsu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked this one, but it wasn't quite the clever puzzle I wanted it to be.

It's a series of linked short stories, each containing at least one illustration that suggests clues to the story.

I found, for the most part, that the illustrations didn't really have a lot to offer. It was an interesting idea, but their explanations when they came felt a little flimsy.

The story itself, though, was interesting, and I liked the way they all intertwined without you really understanding how until later.

There were some intriguing mysteries, for sure, and I enjoyed trying to puzzle them out. And while some of the explanations seemed a little off, I enjoyed thinking about the puzzles and how bizarre some of the setups were.

I'll still recommend this one for fans of strange mysteries - the gimmick with the pictures is fresh and adds something not many other books have, making it interesting just on that factor alone. It also introduces some fascinating characters, and some of the stories were wonderfully twisted.

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