Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Review of "The Mystery of Monastery Farm"

The Mystery of Monastery Farm by H. R. Naylor is a public domain mystery novel that was originally published in 1908.  The mystery spoken of in the title is the theft of $150,000 in bank notes from the Bank of England.  The police are called in, but the mystery appears to be unsolvable.

I found this book interesting enough, but I would not have qualified this as a mystery novel.  I recognize that the mystery is at the heart of the novel, but in this case it is simply a MacGuffin that drives one of the main characters to become a better man.  The book reads more like a morality story, as well as a tale about the power of love, than a mystery.

The book also overreaches a bit in its use of the power of guilt over the physical condition.  While I agree that guilt can cause actual physical ailments, it is pushed a bit hard in this book.

The book was entertaining overall, while a bit dry.  I would not, however, recommend it as a mystery.  It is more of a character study or morality tale.  If you are looking for a good mystery, there are plenty of them out there.  This is a pleasant enough story (albeit dry, I can’t say that enough), but it will not really satisfy as a mystery novel.

Don’t own a Kindle, but would like to?  The latest generation of Kindle is available at the following links:  with WiFi only   or with WiFi and 3G.

Christy Parker is the author of three blogs:  Ruminations from and Unkempt Mind,  Learn to Crochet - In Minutes a Day,  and You Be the Editor.

For comments, questions, notes or suggestions; Mrs. Parker can be reached in the blog specific forums on the product information pages listed above or via email at unkemptruminations@comcast.net.

No comments:

Post a Comment