Review by CSlanina -- The 11.05 Murders by Brian O'Hare

[CSlanina]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The 11.05 Murders" by Brian O'Hare.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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This review is for the book The 11:05 Murders by Brian O'Hare. This book is a typical detective story, where we follow Detective Denise Stewart and the members of her new unit as they attempt to solve several mysterious murders. As the title suggests, the common thread among these murders is that they occur at the same time, 11:05 pm. Throughout the story there are many side crimes and events that may or may not be related to the murders. It keeps the reader guessing throughout, like a good mystery should.

I really did enjoy this book. In the beginning the story was slow to come together, with many loose threads that took time to intertwine. Once they did the story moved quickly and was fast paced to the end. There is a romantic storyline that, while interesting, doesn't have much depth. There wasn't enough time spent cultivating close relationships to make it believable. I realize that this would have made the book quite a bit longer, so for me it wasn't necessarily important, but perhaps other parts could have bern minimized to make up for this.

I had two issues with this book that, for me, detracted from my reading experience. The first was the introduction of the central character as "Woman Detective Denise Stewart". While there is an ongoing theme of sexual harassment in the book, "Woman Detective" seemed an unnecessary distinction that took me out of the story. This may be an actual rank/designation in the part of the world where the book is based but my brief attempt to research this was futile.

The second issue was the amount of characters in the book. There are many that are essential to the storyline, but there are also filler characters which seem to serve little to no purpose. I found myself going back to remind myself who some of the characters were, and in the end it was time wasted.

The plot of the book is easy to follow and kept my interest without being too predictable. I particularly enjoyed the author's vocabulary usage as it exposed me to several new words (as an avid reader it was unusual and a pleasant surprise). I rate this book three out of four stars. I liked the story, but those few issues previously mentioned pulled me out of the book and into the real world, something that would not occur with a 4 star book.

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The 11.05 Murders
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