It was time for a mystery I told myself. Being set in Victorian London, one of my favourite settings for a number of memorable books, The Killing Site by Caro Peacock piqued my interest. This together with the fact that it was the seventh in a series of historical fiction novels penned by Peacock in the Liberty Lane Mystery series.
The story centres around the kidnapping of Liberty Lane, wife, mother and private investigator. Lane’s husband is sent on a trip to the Continent to procure something which may secure Liberty’s freedom but at the same time put the aristocracy and the Queen in danger. Liberty’s family and 2 loyal and somewhat shady employees feature in the story line, as does the Police Commissioner.
I can race through an enjoyable a book in a day but this novel took me weeks, as I failed to ever find it in the least bit interesting. It had all the outward characteristics of a book I should have enjoyed immensely. However, the story line was predictable and not one of the characters, even the heroine herself, did I find at all engaging or likable. To top this off Peacock’s paragraphs could run up to 3 and 4 pages in length. This made the reading of her work more tedious than it should have been.
So as this long weekend draws to a close I am glad I have been able to begin another novel, which I am already finding more engaging than The Killing Site. I will not be rushing out anytime soon to read any of the other 6 Liberty Lane Mysteries.
