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

[LadyBlu]

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

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2 out of 4 stars

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The 11:05 Murders
Brian O'Hare
First Published in the UK: 2016
ISBN: 1681600722
Rating: 2 out of 4 Stars

What to say about this book. Honestly, from the title and its raving reviews on Amazon, I was expecting it to be mind-blowingly amazing. This was not the case. I found the plot to be strong and that it could be a brilliant, unfortunately, the story and style of writing let it down. I found it hard to keep reading the book, it didn’t draw me in and I found it hard to connect with the characters.

I was quite surprised at the constant sexist connotations made by the author at the beginning of the book, including the continual reminder that the Detective Sergeant is female by calling her “Woman Detective Sergeant Denise Stewart”. I’m not sure how much research this author has done, but there is no such title as “Woman Detective Sergeant”, just ‘Detective Sergeant’. I would also suggest the book get looked at by a copy-editor, there were parts that were unnecessary to include and at times, it felt like the author was just trying to point out the detective was female – which is obvious and doesn’t need emphasising – prime example ... Chapter Seven!

The prologue felt out of place at first – it had all the impact, intrigue and essence of what the book should have been like. As for the story, I found the beginning a little boring. I mean, a murder didn’t take place until chapter six/seven – a long time to wait for something to happen in a crime novel. That’s what I feel, anyway. The pace of the story was all over the place, which was a little off-putting; it was slow, then would speed up and then slow down again. I’m glad it hastened by the last couple of chapters, it needed that; however, that didn’t enhance the build up of the ending.

There was also the constant jumping from one characters POV to another in the same paragraph; example – “He turned into the cul-de-sac at the end of the road and pulled into the driveway. Margaret heard his key in the lock, and met him in the hallway” There is nothing to showcase the change in character, it just jumps from one to another and then back again. The novel should be more structured; the characters POV should be separated – it would give more realism to the story and would flow a lot better. At times I was a little confused at who’s POV I was reading from and had to re-read sections.

Ignoring the relentless inferring of sexist stereotypes, and the lack of understanding of what a “feminist” is, the story line is actually quite interesting; if a little slow. As I progressed through the chapters I found that it lacked the essence of a good crime novel. The emphasis seemed to be on the technical side of the investigation and lacked emotion until nearer the end – at least, that’s how it felt to me. Emotion, in a crime novel, is one of the keys in drawing a reader in. The descriptive were lacking in places, which would have helped with the atmosphere and tension. I want a ‘who’s dunnit’ to be ballsy, to be captivating and to want the reader to be constantly re-guessing the murderer/murderers – which this didn’t, I’m sorry to say.

Let’s move on to the characters; they felt flat and I was unable to relate to them properly. I felt the only instances of realism was the banter and interaction between DCI Sheehan and his wife – personal experience of the author, perhaps? DS Denise Stewart – who had obviously been in a bad situation previously, what with incurring the sexist attitudes and insults from her previous ‘team’ – and the way she treated her new, male, team members was really strange to me. She had respect for her DCI Sheehan – her boss – but not so much for the others? If she’d had a bad experience with the men on her team, she would be standoff-ish and bitchy with them all, not just one of two. If she’s angry, she needs to show it more as well, I felt like the author was holding back on a lot of the emotions of the characters and I think that would have made them more interesting and that they would have packed more of a punch. I will add that the characters personalities do get better and evolve somewhat two thirds of the way through ... but not enough for me.

The ending of this book was predictable; too much was given away throughout. Too many clues added up to one conclusion; a good crime novels needs to make it more of a puzzle, to make the reader constantly second guess the murderer and then have their mind blown by a conclusion they didn’t see coming. I wanted that build up and that shock ending, which this book failed to deliver.

I think this book has so much potential and could be a really amazing book but is lacking in structure, technique and emotion. The plot, storyline and characters need work as well. Personally, I believe the book needs to be re-looked at, re-drafted, edited and beta read to make this a really intense and gripping crime novel. This is why I could only give this book a rating of 2 out of 4 stars.

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The 11.05 Murders
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Like LadyBlu's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Manang Muyang]

Hi, LadyBlu! I am a murderous murder fan myself. I do hope this story does not disappoint me as it did you.

[Kalin Adi]

It's too bad you couldn't enjoy reading this book. What a downer! A crime story without a crime? It sounds terrible! What was the plot exactly? Thanks for sharing your opinions!