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annathepiperConsequences of Sin calls itself an "Edwardian Mystery" that introduces the character of Ursula Marlow. It's a very period-looking novel; even the author's name seems to fit the look. (Seriously: Langley-Hawthorne? Can you possibly get any more British? ;) )It seems oddly appropriate, too, that the story is as short as it is. I could easily imagine an author of the time (which is to say, 1910-11) producing a book this short.
That said, half of me feels that the story was actually too short. There's a whole lot of story woven into 250-odd pages here, and the experience of it was different for me than reading, oh, say, Charlaine Harris' Lily Bard books. Here, particularly in the latter half of the book, I kept wanting to see some expansion on interesting concepts that were barely touched upon--such as Ursula up and deciding that she was going to scamper off disguised as a young man to try to track down the guy everyone in the cast is presuming is responsible for the murder that starts the book.
On the other hand, there's a certain elegant sparsity to Langley-Hawthorne's prose. And while the romantic sucker in me felt vaguely cheated by the relative dearth of expounding upon the sentiments blooming between our heroine and the obligatorily dashing Lord Wrotham, there is nevertheless a certain refined sweetness to the brief exchanges they do have.
I think that for my ideal reading experience, though, this book could have stood to be slightly--but not much--longer. The latter half in particular felt quite rushed to me, with Ursula rushing from event to event, with barely any space to describe the transitions between glimpses of this situation and that. One character in particular, the skeevy fellow Ursula's father is anxious for her to marry, is given short shrift; he is quite important to the plot, and yet he barely gets any camera time at all. As a result, he comes out reading almost like a caricature.
All that said, though, I did like the writing, and Ursula and her Lord Wrotham are interesting enough that I'll probably check out the next book; I'll be quite interested to know whether Wrotham pulls off being able to marry a girl whose father was the son of a miner, and how he'll continue to deal with her blatant suffragette beliefs. In the meantime, for this book, three stars.
That said, half of me feels that the story was actually too short. There's a whole lot of story woven into 250-odd pages here, and the experience of it was different for me than reading, oh, say, Charlaine Harris' Lily Bard books. Here, particularly in the latter half of the book, I kept wanting to see some expansion on interesting concepts that were barely touched upon--such as Ursula up and deciding that she was going to scamper off disguised as a young man to try to track down the guy everyone in the cast is presuming is responsible for the murder that starts the book.
On the other hand, there's a certain elegant sparsity to Langley-Hawthorne's prose. And while the romantic sucker in me felt vaguely cheated by the relative dearth of expounding upon the sentiments blooming between our heroine and the obligatorily dashing Lord Wrotham, there is nevertheless a certain refined sweetness to the brief exchanges they do have.
I think that for my ideal reading experience, though, this book could have stood to be slightly--but not much--longer. The latter half in particular felt quite rushed to me, with Ursula rushing from event to event, with barely any space to describe the transitions between glimpses of this situation and that. One character in particular, the skeevy fellow Ursula's father is anxious for her to marry, is given short shrift; he is quite important to the plot, and yet he barely gets any camera time at all. As a result, he comes out reading almost like a caricature.
All that said, though, I did like the writing, and Ursula and her Lord Wrotham are interesting enough that I'll probably check out the next book; I'll be quite interested to know whether Wrotham pulls off being able to marry a girl whose father was the son of a miner, and how he'll continue to deal with her blatant suffragette beliefs. In the meantime, for this book, three stars.