Review: Murder, She Reported, by Peg Cochran

I’m afraid I’m going to be the single naysayer in a raft of gushingly positive reviews.  I hated this book.  Not at first, mind you, when I was sure Cochran was a first-time author, whose work suffered all the clunky problems of a newly published writer.  But when I realized she had a dozen titles to her credit, that made me rethink my initial feelings of indulgence.

What do I mean by clunky? When you tell the reader, not only the name of the nail polish but the brand, you’ve told us exactly nothing. I don’t care if it’s made by Cutex, let me see the color, frex, “her nail polish was the red of a barely cooked filet mignon,”   If you persistently tell us the name of the songs that are playing, and give us background, frex “they were dancing to Cheek to Cheek, from the Fred Astaire movie, Top Hat” it doesn’t validate your historical research, it just thuds.  Fortunately by about halfway through the book, Cochran did manage to stop that particular bad habit.

And she did Elizabeth no favors by having her opine over and over, about how difficult life is for people during the depression when Elizabeth is a rich girl taking a job from someone who might actually need to work. Wanting to be independent is nifty, wanting to earn your living is great, but when you don’t need the money, why take the job from someone else?  But then, Elizabeth’s mother breaks her leg, and not long after, her sister, who had been nursing their mother, comes down with pneumonia, and poor Elizabeth is run ragged nursing them both plus doing her job, and sleuthing like mad.  They’re rich.  Why don’t they hire a nurse?  Give the nursing job to someone who needs the money!  It’s really infuriating how badly thought out this seems.

Elizabeth isn’t much of a character in any event, none of them are.  They’re wooden and flat, and cliched.  Don’t even get me started on the trite way she uses gay characters!  And the scenes between her and the detective bring the entire narrative to a grinding halt, after which it never really gets any momentum back. I got to the end, the killer was pretty much who I’d guessed it was, and my only thought was, “Well thank goodness I’m finished.”

Initially, when The Housemate asked me what I thought, I told her it was a pretty lightweight mystery, but kind of cute.  By the time I finished, it had stopped being cute and was simply lightweight.  Go into it expecting nothing special, and you won’t be disappointed.  It’s a bit of brain candy.  I should add that I got this free from Net Galley, and my review should tell you that I can’t be bought.