Just Half An Hour

I just finished reading a book and decided to try share my review of it.

That’s what I find I am learning to love about personal blogging… I have the absolute freedom to talk about what I want to, when I want to.

I get to write about things I derive enjoyment from (like reading) and hopefully, if you like them too you’ll get more ideas, in this case books, to add to your fun To-Do list 🙂

I don’t yet have a set format for how to do these book reviews going forward so for now, I’m just going to wing it until I figure out a format that works for me.

I stumbled on this book while perusing the shelves at my local library trying to kill time. I like a good mystery and was unfamiliar with this series and author but the storyline “called out to me” so I decided to try it out.

The first few pages were good enough to keep on reading.

Book Summary

There’s an art seminar in the Italian town of Bassano and interpreter Riccardo Montoya aka Rick (who also doubles as a sleuth) is in town for the event working as an interpreter.

One of the conference attendees gets murdered, he also happens to be not very well-liked by most of the other attendees so suspects are a-plenty. The story centers around Rick and how he works with, and without, the local authorities to try and solve the crime.

My Review

I quite enjoyed this book.

The protagonist is a very likable character. He pretty much gets along with everyone, is quite agreeable and just seems like the kind of guy that could easily become a friend.

The pace is not breakneck fast, but moves at a very comfortable cadence that still keeps one engaged and intrigued enough to keep hanging in there to find out how it all unfolds.

I did get a bit confused with the use of all the Italian terms, some were easy enough to understand because the author was good about immediately explaining the terms in context but sometimes either the explanations were lacking or I totally just didn’t get them.

I liked that the story took place in parts of Italy that aren’t “the usual suspects”, so much so, that at one point I wondered if they actually did exist. At the very end of the book the author took the time to discuss a bit more about the regions that the story occurred in, their history, geography, culture, etc., and that was a really nice touch I thought 🙂

The main protagonist Rick also has a sweet romance that develops quite realistically (not like what you’d see in a hurried Hollywood flick where they rush to get the pair in bed just to quickly make a point of letting us know that they’re involved). But there’s a bit more to the history of Signor Montoya’s love life… None of which take away from the story, but actually add to it.

I like that the ending surprised me and I was quite satisfied with it 🙂

The author’s writing style is very calm, even-keeled, and easy to follow. You don’t get lost trying to follow rabbit trail storylines although I did have to go back a couple of times to place exactly which characters were which.

Most Memorable Quote

I can’t think of any but I’m including this section because for future book reviews I do, I’d like to remember to add them in 🙂

My Eagle Eye Moments

I found a couple of typos i.e. missing words, words out of sequence, misspelled words, etc. and now I wish I had noted the pages along the way so that just in case the author ever sees this review, they know what edits need to be made for future publication runs.

Final Book Rating

7.2 out of 10 stars

Read my book review of Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala.