It has certainly been a minute since my last book review! “Where has Caroline been?”, you might ask. Well, I spent 723 pages in a tiny British village called Casvelyn, Cornwall, where former Scotland Yard detective Thomas Lynley discovers a body at the bottom of a cliff on his coastal walk. When he is roped into assisting with the murder case by a brash and opinionated local detective, Lynley must solve this mystery and pry into the secrets of a tight-lipped community while bearing the burden of his wife’s sudden murder.

What did I like about this brick-sized novel? What did I despise? Find out below!

What I liked…

  • The detectives: Bea Hannaford, with her spiky hair and quick temper, perfectly complements Thomas Lynley’s quiet and analytical personality. When she isn’t howling at the inept constables working under her at the Casvelyn police station, Hannaford is coping with raising an adolescent boy and keeping her estranged husband (also a police officer) at bay. Lynley is also a character with fascinating complexity; he shows how grief can manifest as both a numb feeling and as a sudden sensation that takes your breath away.
  • The setting and surf: Casvelyn is a fictional village, but the novel’s descriptions of the quiet Cornish coast are vivid and absorbing. The sea that attracts hoards of surfers during the summer months is the perfect backdrop against which the characters’ fights and fantasies play out.
  • The banter: This is a British detective novel — need I say more? The scenes in which Bea Hannaford and Barbara Havers (a bright but slightly unkempt associate of Lynley’s) prod suspects for information are absolutely delightful to read.

What I despised…

  • Every character that is not a detective: I am absolutely serious about this, and it’s quite tragic given that the true story behind the murder is supposed to be unearthed from the tangle of strained relationships in Casvelyn. None of the friends, family members and acquaintances of the murdered Santo Kerne behave in a way that is sensible, interesting, or consistent. Some of their personalities and behaviors are far too exaggerated to be even remotely realistic or relatable. Take Dellen Kerne, Santo’s mother, who is portrayed as nothing more than a wild sex addict, or Madlyn Angarrack, Santo’s ex-girlfriend, who allegedly had a strong enough temper to send threatening mail to other people and yet does not show a hint of this temper in the scenes where she appears.
  • Multiple, multiple POVs: This is another reason why most of the characters fell flat for me. Jumping between about ten people’s perspectives over the course of the novel left virtually no room for anyone’s story to be sufficiently resolved. Several of the characters’ POVs could have been completely removed in order to shave 100+ pages off the novel.
  • The ending: Alas, I can say very little about this to avoid ruining the novel for anyone who may want to read it. I will simply note this: with so many characters involved, it was tremendously disappointing not to see the various threads of their lives woven into the true story behind Santo’s death. Again, what is the point of introducing readers to so many characters if most of them are simply discarded within the last 50 pages?

Final thoughts…

Unfortunately, I must conclude with the verdict that this novel is not worth the read given its excessive length and lack of proper character development or resolution. There are other books in the Inspector Lynley series that may very well be worth reading, but Careless in Red was not my favorite detective novel.