#498 ~ My Lady, The Spy

My Lady, The Spy by Barbara Devlin

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Fourth book in the 'Gentleman Always Play Fair' Box Set (location 16322 to 21971), although as mentioned before I will be doing separate reviews and rating, and then at the end give the whole box set a rating based on sum of its parts.

The other two books so far in the box set scored three stars overall, which was judged on the usual, plot, pace, characterisation and also errors and highlights (sadly no highlights for either of them, or this one).

I have struggled how many stars overall to give this one based on the same criteria, given that there were not many errors it came out nearer a 3 star than 2, and thus I think I will generously go with the 3 stars. There wasn't too much else to say about it I'm afraid, it was not good, but neither was it truly terrible. Simply it suffered from the usual malaise of American grammar and a feeling of not enough true research to engender a truly authentic historical novel for that period. I am, however, quite hard to please, and others may love it and not be so bogged down with detail. It seems the more I study the subject of Creative Writing, the harder it is to please me.


Errors/Bug Bears/Highlights:

No highlights, and as you can see above general moaning about a feel of authenticity, i.e. 'entryway' (location 16796) and 'sidewalks' (location 17040).

Errors:

Location 16537:  'kept the miniature next to his.' - missing bit?

Location 17632: 'Just when things were getting interesting, she was relegated to the position of hall monitor.' - I rest much case about authenticity of language or phrase for historical novels, especially ones centred around England.

Location 17903: 'Well, that is just swell dandy fine.' - see comment above and insert derisive snort.

Location 20437: 'rested a shoulder on the sidewall ...' - oh dear, oh dear, oh dear what would be wrong with just 'leant against the wall wit a furrowed brow'?

As mentioned in the previous posts, I will rate each book separately and then given an overall rating to the box set at the end.

Happy reading.

Kay xoxox









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