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Julianne Holmes

Författare till Just Killing Time

3 verk 117 medlemmar 9 recensioner

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Verk av Julianne Holmes

Just Killing Time (2015) 57 exemplar
Clock And Dagger (2016) 36 exemplar

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Best first in a new series I've read in a long time.

Ruth’s grandfather instilled in her a love of timepieces. Unfortunately after her grandmother died and he remarried, Ruth and Grandpa Thom became estranged. She’s wanted to reconnect after her recent divorce, but sadly her grandfather has been found dead after a break-in at his shop—and the police believe he was murdered.

Ruth has been named the heir to Grandpa Thom’s clock shop, the Cog & Sprocket, in the small Berkshire town of Orchard, Massachusetts. As soon as she moves into the small apartment above the shop and begins tackling the heaps of unfinished work, Ruth finds herself trying to stay on the good side of Grandpa’s bossy gray cat, Bezel, while avoiding the step-grandmother she never wanted.

I really have no complaints; it was a solid story with fleshed out characters, an air of romantic interest, but no sign of a love triangle. I found the whole horology angle incredibly interesting and I find myself more curious now about old clocks. I guessed the murderer pretty early on, but not because the author played fast and loose with clues; rather there was a subtle difference to one of the characters that just made me think "that one". It wasn't obvious though, so I enjoyed reading to the end in order to find out if I was right.

Additionally, this is the first book I can remember reading in recent memory that didn't have editing errors so blatant that they stopped me in my reading tracks. Nice.

I'm looking forward to the next book with hope that Ms. Holmes has another solid mystery on offer.
… (mer)
½
 
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murderbydeath | 3 andra recensioner | Jan 23, 2022 |
Ambitious. That was the first word that came to mind after it became clear where the story was going. I love the setting, and the characters, and Holmes deserved her Agatha nomination for the first in this series, but as much as I admire her willingness to tackle such an intricate murder mystery, it didn't quite achieve success.

The plot was a familiar one, but the method, while very clever, was too convoluted to feel as fresh as it should have. I really like the angle she took with the murder method but by the end of book, I felt the same way I do after I've read an article on quantum physics: like I have the general idea down, but don't as me to explain it or it will all fall apart.

I enjoyed a lot of the book, and I love reading about watch/clock making, so I'll read the next one, if there's a fourth, but reading murder mysteries should not feel like reading quantum physics.
… (mer)
 
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murderbydeath | 1 annan recension | Jan 20, 2022 |
Ruth Clagan has just spent a week at a Vermont retreat, trying to decide what she wants to do with her life. Her marriage has recently dissolved, and she's estranged from her grandfather - partly because he never wanted her to marry her ex-husband, and partly because he remarried only two years after the loss of her beloved grandmother. But now she wants to reconnect, and sends him a postcard telling him so. But before she's able to see him, she receives a telephone call from an attorney who tells her that her grandfather - or G.T. (for Grandpa Thom) as she calls him, is dead - killed during a robbery, and the sheriff suspects it was murder.

Stunned, she returns to the small Massachusetts town of Orchard to find out what happened. She finds that while his wife received the house and its contents, she received her grandfather’s shop, the Cog & Sprocket, and everything in it. Ruth is overwhelmed by it all, and still doesn’t know if she’s going to stay or not. Fortunately, she has the help of G.T’s assistant Pat Reed, and unfortunately, she’ll have to work with G.T.’s widow Caroline, because she does the books and knows what G.T. was working on. While she may not be happy about the situation, she hasn’t got a choice. She's also inherited the shop's cat, Bezel, since she's going to be living in the apartment above the shop.

What Ruth does see is that there are clocks - so many clocks - filling the shop, and Pat tells her they're from the estate of Grover Winter, G.T.'s best friend. He bought them all at once, and had planned on repairing and selling them, with some of the profits to go to Grover's family. But since he died before he was able to do so, that task will fall to Ruth. If she decides to stay.

However, Ruth is curious to find out who killed her grandfather, and she hopes she can find the answers in the shop. But she'd better find out soon, because if she doesn't, Orchard might have one more death on their hands...

I have to say that for the most part I enjoyed this book, but I really didn't care about all the inner workings of a clock. It seems that would appeal only to those who are interested, and I've always felt that writers should realize if their books are going to appeal to a mass audience or a select few. Perhaps if there had been more on the mystery and less on clocks, I might have enjoyed it a whole lot more.

There were also a couple of things that bothered me. I get that Caroline inherited the house and its contents, but she had to have known that the quilt was made for Ruth by her grandmother, so I wondered why she didn't offer it to her. After all, would the loss of one quilt make that much of a difference? She also didn't ask if there was anything in the house that had belonged to Ruth's grandmother that she might have wanted. Wouldn't they have meant more to Ruth than to her? Especially since she'd never met the woman? It's little things like this that bring the reader to care about characters more.

Aside from this, the book was pretty much an easy read. It wasn't difficult to figure out the killer, although the reason why didn't become apparent until toward the end, which is fine. I understand her wanting to rebuild the clock tower, but that's not much of a reason to read the next book.

Unfortunately, most of the book was about clocks and the clock tower. If you remove these parts, there wasn't a whole lot of mystery left. Just when you'd start to get involved in the mystery, here comes another infomercial on the workings of clocks. Because of this, the book was finished quickly without too much thought.

However, since it is the first in a (very short) series, I may or may not read the rest of these books. All in all, not a bad book, but not a great one, either.
… (mer)
 
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joannefm2 | 3 andra recensioner | Jul 29, 2019 |
Chime And Punishment is the third book in the A Clock Shop Mystery series.

Anticipation is growing in Orchard, Mass as it about one month away from the rebuilt clock tower unvieling and the Winding Ceremony. But up first is The Signing Ceremony, where the folks of Orchard will have a chance to see some of the clock parts before they are installed and to etch their names on various parts of the clock.

Ruth Clagan has invited all of the town officials to the ceremony. Kim Gray was noncommittal about attending until Ruth mentioned that there would be a photo op before the ceremony. But as the time approached to begin the speeches, Grey was nowhere to be found. Ruth has sent Pat, her handyman, to start cleaning up so another event could use the Town Hall. But he soon returns to ask that the chief of police, Jeff Paisley is needed as he has just found Grey dead, with the clock tower bell laying on her head.

Kim Grey tended to run the town with an iron fist and therefore the list of suspects seemed to be just about all of Orchard business owner. Two of Ruth’s best friends, Nancy and her daughter Moria seem to be at the top of the list. Ruth begins her own investigation to not only clear their names, but to find the murderer so that the resident’s minds can be totally focused on the celebration of the new clock tower.

I feel that is the best of this series so far. A well-plotted page turner with an interesting cast of characters.

I will be looking forward to the next book in this interesting series.
… (mer)
 
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FredYoder | 1 annan recension | Jul 28, 2017 |

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Statistik

Verk
3
Medlemmar
117
Popularitet
#168,597
Betyg
4.0
Recensioner
9
ISBN
9

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