This cozy mystery is 90% cozy and (at best) 10% mystery. The story meanders and meanders. The prose is packet with description of unimportant things, characters who don’t seem to be important, and chatty gossip unrelated to the plot. There are many whole chapters where nothing happens. (OK, they are short chapters, but still.)

There is a story here, and I’m hoping that the upcoming motion picture will distill this book down into something watchable. My advice is to wait for the movie.

When reading the first fifteen chapters set a stage, but it’s not clear what the stage is for and nothing much happens. When something does happen, it is described in slow motion, or often in terms that make little sense. The first person present style doesn’t help as the narrative jumps between the diary entries of Joyce and an omnipotent first person perspective describing the events, but also lapsing into past tense description of past events and the inner thoughts of the characters. Joyce is not the primary narrator – only an occasional participant. When we do read her diary, she seems to think we should know things that she knows, even when she hasn’t told us.

Here’s an example. In Chapter 23, Joyce is surprised by her friend, Elizabeth, who invites her to take an unscheduled trip on the train to London. Elizabeth has a file full of the financial records of the real estate company that owns Coopers Chase and is working on expanding it, against some significant local protests. How did Elizabeth get these financial records? We are told that she has a source, who owed her a favor. No other explanation. She had emailed all the files to her friend in London, Joanna, who has an employee who knows finances. (So, why does Elizabeth have a bulky file filled with the paper?) They get to Joanna’s office, where Joanna’s American subordinate tells them two important things. What are those two things? Joyce doesn’t tell us. She does pose to the reader the question of whether the two unknown things may be important to the murder investigation. The author then has her say “I’ll let you decide.” BUT WE DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T TELL US!  Aaaargggh. Something has actually happened, but we don’t get to know. So frustrating. (The answer to one of the questions is provided in the next chapter – the money that the builder made as a result of the death of Tony Curran, his foreman. We don’t know how this could be the case, but it is a large number, which may or may not be an actual clue. But plenty of time to get to that later, right?

Many chapters are like that – not cliffhangers as much as teases, and you don’t know for sure whether the punch line is coming or not. There are many coincidences and key facts that drop from the sky to advance the plot, while our octogenarian sleuths plug through the investigation.

In the end the plot meanders to a conclusion, although even after the expository reveal it is still hard to follow the acts amidst the obfuscating dialogue and non-sequitur side discussions. One of the final big scenes takes place with two characters talking during a chess game, with each move recounted (not in enough detail to plot it on an actual board) that is insanely distracting, but probably intended to build tension.

In the very end, Joyce’s last diary entry sort of wraps things up, but still is more confusing than revealing. She then sets the stage for a sequel. I will not be coming along for that ride.