Latter End

But what these unobservant birds

Poodlerat’s book blog

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August 7, 2007 at 1:47 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Mystery and Suspense

78. Latter End by Patricia Wentworth (Mystery) 346 p.

Latter End Jimmy Latter’s marriage to widow Lois Doubleday has always made his family unhappy. He may put her on a pedestal, but everyone else hates her, so when she’s poisoned, there are no shortage of suspects. Luckily, Miss Silver is there to unravel the mystery.

Once again, nothing much to say—Patricia Wentworth’s books, while enjoyable, are too alike to inspire much commentary. Apparently some of her professional reviewers agree with me: Mary Stewart (whoever she may be) finds Miss Silver Intervenes to be “very well written” and The Brading Collection to be “certainly very well-written”, which amused me. I figured out whodunnit halfway through this novel, but it didn’t spoil the book for me.

Books read: 78/100 (78%)
Pages read: 23,558/25,000 (94%)

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Miss Silver, Patricia Wentworth

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4 Comments »

CJHill wrote, on August 8th, 2007 at 9:01 am:

So, does the sameness mean you wouldn’t recommend them? I can’t really tell. It sounds like you found them enjoyable but…?

Now, I admit. It might be me. I’m out of sorts this morning and I’m having trouble getting on track.

I like old books but they can be awfully dated. Is that part of the problem here?

cjh

Poodlerat wrote, on August 8th, 2007 at 10:55 am:

Well…I wouldn’t go so far as to recommend them, but I wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading them, either. I enjoy them in a mild kind of way.

I’m actually never entirely sure what people mean when they say a book is “dated”—or rather, I’m not sure why people seem to see it as such a bad thing. They are old-fashioned; whether that makes them dated or not, I have no idea, but it’s part of why I like them.

I read (and own) a lot of mystery novels that I like but don’t love. They’re comfort reads, because they’re light and fun without being challenging in any way. Like a lot of mystery series, really.

CJHill wrote, on August 9th, 2007 at 8:24 am:

I’m with you. I don’t see how a book can be dated, not really. GWTW is still an amazing book, as is TKAMB. And there is certainly nothing wrong with a comfort read. In fact, there are definitely times when that’s exactly what you need.

I’ll have to see if I can locate any of these books in our library.

cjh

Poodlerat wrote, on August 9th, 2007 at 11:00 am:

I know some other fans were worried that Guy Gavriel Kay’s Ysabel would soon be dated by the use of cell phones, iPods, and modern slang in the book, which I found odd, since no one ever seems ti worry that the use of horses, swords, and formal language date his other books.

Next time I see someone use the word, I will definitely ask them what they mean by it, and why they assume that a book being “dated” is a problem. I’m really curious to know what the answer will be.