Whodunit April 29, 2014

What a great evening of book talk and laughter with friends!
Although we were a small group of eleven, a few of those present were folks we hadn't seen for a while - which made it very pleasant to 'catch up.'

The novel discussed this evening was "Snow White Must Die" by German novelist Nele Neuhaus.

As usual we went around the circle to see what our group thought of the book and how they rated it out of a possible ten points.   Opinions were varied, but the overall average score was 8/10 with only half of the members present saying they would read another novel by this author.

Negative comments:
Too many characters with confusing and unfamiliar German names which were hard to keep straight.  Especially annoying was the use of characters surnames, then later their forenames.  This is a tactic that we as a group find irritating and unnecessarily confusing.  Some found the novel to be longer than it needed to be with too many twists in the narrative.  The ending was said to be weak and implausible.  The author employed the use of many 'red herrings' which was annoying to some readers whilst other readers enjoyed them.

Positive comments:
Great characterization and descriptions throughout.  Especially liked were the protagonist, Tobias and his father.  Also greatly liked were the police officers along with the back story of their personal lives.
Some said that they just couldn't wait to get back to the novel after having to put it down. The novel aptly described the evil that comes from abuse of power.  Tobias served over ten years in prison for a crime that he did not commit.  His homecoming is less than joyful when he finds how his father's life and business have suffered in the interim.  It made the plot even more tragic when it was realized just how many people were affected by the crime's fallout.
Many enjoyed the writing style, but wondered if some nuances might have been lost in the translation from German to English. 

They say "It takes a village to raise a child".  After reading this novel one wonders.... does it take a village to kill a child.  Everyone seems to be hiding something.  The 'ties that bind' were not just familial, they spread to the entire village and their dependency on the rich and powerful Claudius Terlinden.

"Neuhaus is terrific at creating the complex claustrophobia of a village where the same families have lived for generations."--Express review

"Snow White Must Die" is the first of Nele Neuhaus’s crime novels featuring the police detective team of Oliver von Bodenstein and Pia Kirchoff to the be translated from her native German into English, though it is actually the fourth in the bestselling series.  It has already been published in 15 countries with more than three million copies in print.

It was chosen by GoodReads as their 'group read' for the month of April.

 

The lucky winners of this month's book giveaways:

1. Brian x2

2. Lynne

3. Heather x2

4. Marilyn

5. Nancy

6. Carmella

7. Jean

8. Brenda  x2

9. Cathy

There will NOT be a meeting of the Whodunit Mystery Book Club in May.

On June 24th we will meet again to discuss "Loyalty" by Ingrid Thoft