Winter Study by Nevada Barr
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
It was a bit humourless to start with, which made it feel slow. Maybe the tone was right for the setting and what was going on, but I felt too oppressed by it. There was also a few preachy bits I skipped right over. I’m sure many don’t know the depressing facts, and preaching facts à la Law & Order certainly seems to be a trend, but I find it tedious and unreal. The story itself should tell the important side of the facts, and this one does. So why go on and on telling facts in an unrealistic thought bubble, so to speak? It would’ve been better if she had left it at showing and injected a little humour in as well. Every dark side can have humour! Or maybe that’s a cultural thing…
The library didn’t have a lot of the ebooks between the first few of Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon series and the later few, and so I skipped a whole bunch in between to read this one. It didn’t really make a difference in being able to follow the story, even though I’ve apparently missed a crucial piece of Anna Pigeon’s personal story. I thought the first few were stronger than this one though. Still, the last two-thirds of Winter Study, despite preachiness, were worth reading. As is the Foreword.
