The House on Tradd Street by Karen White
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I am not really big on mystery novels. This is not to say I can’t enjoy a good mystery in a novel. I just cannot handle it when the entire plot of a novel revolves around not knowing a bunch of very important things. I also loathe really obvious foreshadowing and poorly dealt out clues. Of course, these things can all be present in non -genre novels too. What was I saying? Oh yeah, this book had a lot of issues, but I liked it. I’m a huge sucker for the Southern small town secretsy society old buildings charming culturey setting. Like, big time. Even though I would probably hate living in any of these places.
Despite the Southern charm; this book is rife with plot holes and grammatical issues that an editor shouldn’t have missed. The protagonist, Melanie Middleton, is not sympathetic. She is a prickly bitch who has a number of really good friends for no discernible reason. She is 39 and clearly has severe Obsessive Compulsive issues as a result of childhood trauma, but doesn’t seek professional help despite being accurately diagnosed by multiple people in her life. I actually respected that she didn’t own casual clothing. But the way she kept fobbing the dog off on other people was the kiss of death for her in my eyes. The fact that I am interested in reading the sequel defies as much logic as she does but whatever I do what I want.