The Mystery of Nevermore by C.S. Poe

3 Stars

Snow & Winter Book One

I was vaguely disappointed by this book.  I say vaguely because it wasn't a bad read, it just didn't satisfy me the way I was hoping it would. I mean, it has some of my fave tropes - the shop owner and the cop, a mystery or two, the promise of a series of adventures, even a holidayish setting.  It just never clicked for me.

One problem I had with with it was the shop owner main character.  He suffers from achromatopsia, which is total colour blindness.  He only sees in shades of grey/white/black and is extremely light sensitive.  Now that's not a problem in and of itself, it's just that I spent at least half the book wondering how he saw things and how he could do certain things.  Not that the author didn't explain things, she did.  It just took a hold in my mind and the wondering would not stop!  It was very distracting.

And then there was the instalove.  Now.. I find that as I get older, instalove has begun to lose some of its lustre.  Especially when the characters aren't new adult age, but one is 33 and the other is 42.  Insta- LUST, I will buy.  Big time interest?  Most certainly.  But in this case, Sebastian and Cal seemed to get deep really, really fast and for no perceptible reason that I could see.  If anything, the subplot of Sebastian breaking up with his boyfriend, Neil, should have made impeded the whole deepness thing, IMO.  Sufficient to say that I wasn't buying it. Now, I do think the characters will grow on me.  I hope, anyway.  I liked many of the basic traits etc... that were set down in this first book of the series.

I liked many of the secondary characters as well.  Seb's father, Cal's partner, Seb's antique store employee and Seb's store neighbour.  They all seemed pretty authentic and I hope we see more of them as the series continues.  I also hope that the mystery will be a little more weighty - I like it when the mysteries are as important to the story as the love story, but I didn't get that here.  It felt to me like the mystery was created so the guys could have some hot sex.  So maybe, next book, a little more sleuthing and a little less dancing in the sheets?  And some more delving into the emotions of the MCs would e nice too.

I did find that there was more than an echo of the Adrien English mysteries by Josh Lanyon, but thank heavens I didn't dislike one of the MCs the way I do Adrien's erstwhile cop lover.  I do believe that if you're a fan of the Lanyons, you'll enjoy this book.  So, all in all, the book just left me, as I said, vaguely disappointed.  But I will be continuing the series.  :)  Oh, and BTW, I love the covers of these books.  They are nicely evocative, I think.