What do You think about Murder On Monday (2003)?
You don't need to go out of your way to read this. As far as mysteries go, it got off to a slow start. About half-way through it picked up a bit and ended on a higher note. I was hoping to find another mystery series I like. I will probably read Murder on Tuesday before I make that determination.Lois Meade, house cleaner and sleuth wannabe, is the main character. I found her to be pretty bland, along with her husband, her children and her clients. As I said, it got better as it went, and hopefully the characters will develop some spunk in subsequent books.
—Lois
I wanted to like this book.I love the "cozy" style of mystery, and if the setting is English, so much the better. In those respects, this book was exactly what I expected. And I liked the notion that the amateur sleuth was a young working class mother with a working class husband.There was nothing wrong with the mystery itself. And the author even managed some brief shifts of point of view (letting us into the minds of many of the suspects and some of the other villagers) deftly. The writing was unobjectionable--not stellar, but I didn't find myself editing the grammar and language as I went along, and for a thin little paperback that is what I require.No, the problem is I don't like the amateur sleuth at the heart of the story. For all she's got some great kids, a supportive mom, and a not-perfect, but hard-working, loving husband, she's self-absorbed, quick to take offense, judgmental.... These, of course, are perfectly human attributes, and she's basically a decent human being, but I find I really don't want to spend time with her, her daughter, nor really even husband Derek. I certainly don't want to spend time with the coppers who use her to dig up information by snooping on her clients.So, that was an interesting experience, but not one I think I'll repeat with any of the successive novels. Purser's books are published by the same house that does the Susan Wittig Albert China Bayles series. I think I'll stick to those.
—Rosemary
Somebody wrote that this is British to the core. It is very British, that's for sure. I sometimes wondered if almost stereotypically so. It was an OK read. Lots of domestic details that were I think put in not so much to move the plot forward, but to try and bury the clues in detail. However, I solved the mystery well before the end. Not good. Since my brain injury, I have not figured out whodunnit before the end, not even -- until very recently and then only sporadically -- in books I've already read. So for me to solve it meant this was an easy puzzle. This would bore the usual kind of mystery reader with no reading problems, though it may be just the right cup of tea for a person who likes an easy read.
—Shireen
