Book: The Strings of Murder
Author: Oscar de Muriel
Pages: 407
Read On: Paperback
How Long it Took Me to Read: 2 days
Plot Summary: Edinburgh, 1888. A violinist is murdered in his home. The dead virtuoso's maid swears she heard three musicians playing in the night. But with only one body in the locked practice room and no way in or out the case makes no sense. Fearing a national panic over another Ripper, Scotland Yard sends Inspector Ian Frey to investigate under the cover of a fake department specializing in the occult. However, Frey's new boss, Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray, actually believes in such supernatural nonsense. McGray's tragic past has driven him to superstition, but even Frey must admit that this case seems beyond reason. And once someone loses all reason, who knows what they will lose next.
General Thoughts: Historical fiction + murder mystery + occult! I heard these three words and wanted this book!
Things I Liked:
1. The setting and premise of this book is perfect and gloomy and spooky. All things that I like.
2. The murders are gruesome and the atmosphere of this book largely remains very tense and sinister.
3. The characters in this book are very well fleshed out and you really get to know them by the end of the book. Both Ian Frey and McGray are wonderful characters that I enjoyed getting to know through the course of this book.
4. This book taught me a lot about violins, classical music and several myths and tales surrounding certain musicians and I found this very interesting. And I am not a classical music aficionado at all! I love when books teach me something new. #nerdforlife
5. The bantering between McGray and Frey was just so much fun!
6. I didn't really/ fully guess who the culprit was and not to toot my own horn, that almost never happens. I usually guess things midway through most mystery books. But I didn't here and that was a huge plus point.
7. The occult and supernatural stories in this book were so fun. I am huge spooky story fan and anything to do with the occult is always fun to read.
8. Even the side characters in this book were done justice and seemed real and were very memorable. Elgie Frey, Joan, Dr. Reed and Downs were all nicely fleshed out.
Things I Didn't Like:
1. The beginning of this book was soooooooooooo slow! I nearly wanted to stop reading! Frey doesn't even get to Scotland till page 93!! The first half could have/ should have been a lot faster.
2. The Scottish dialect and way of speaking maybe difficult for some people to read and understand. I struggled with it a bit but since I've seen Outlander I was a little bit clued in with the Scottish speak. :)
3. Now this is me being a little silly but I was a tad bit disappointed with the ending. The culprit made sense...and it wasn't implausible or anything but, but...I don't know I just expected something a little more shocking.
4. The book wasn't nearly as dark or scary as I had hoped it would be.
Rating: 4/5
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