Review by rhendel -- Pancake Money by Finn Bell

[rhendel]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Pancake Money" by Finn Bell.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Pancake Money by Finn Bell is a suspenseful crime novel that follows Detective Bobby Ress and his partner, Detective Pollo, on their quest to solve the gruesome murder of an elderly priest. While the detectives attempt to navigate the investigation, deal with the area’s most prolific gang, and balance the culture of the Maori people, the case starts to spiral out of control. Detectives Ress and Pollo realize there’s much more to the story than meets the eye, and much more at stake than either of them realized.

I really enjoyed reading Pancake Money. I typically love reading crime and murder mystery novels and, after reading the synopsis, I was excited to read this book. The only thing I had trepidations about was how graphic parts of the book would be since some reviews mentioned how gruesome certain descriptions are. One of my biggest pet peeves with crime books is when there are graphic descriptions included for no other reason than to be gory. While there were certainly a few paragraphs that made me cringe, I found them typical of the genre and easy to skim through without losing an understanding of what was happening. In fact, I actually found that the descriptions enhanced the story to show how much was at stake.

The story takes place in New Zealand, and Bell provided enough background information to understand the culture and nuances of the area. There’s a lot of information about the Maori people, which was particularly helpful to me since I didn’t know anything about them previously. I thought it was an interesting aspect of the story that I hadn’t read in other crime novels.

Overall, I found Pancake Money engaging from the beginning and filled with suspenseful storylines and enough twists to keep me on my toes. Once I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down! Since I read a lot of crime novels I’m often able to figure out the ending of a book early on, however every time I thought I had the storyline figured out another twist would occur and everything I thought I knew had changed! There was good main character development that made me feel connected and invested in their storylines, but not so much detail that it became overwhelming. I do wish there had been some more detail paid to some of the female characters, who appeared secondary throughout the book. I think there were some opportunities to give a female character a strong role, and I think that would have enhanced the reading experience for me.

There are a couple parts focusing on psychological concepts that I had to re-read a few times to understand. At the time they seemed a little out of place, however by the end of the book I understood the reasoning for including them and I think they added an extra contextual layer to the story. These were the only parts of the book that were a little boring to me, but they were pretty short so it didn’t take too long to read through them.

I rate Pancake Money 4 out of 4 stars. This was one of the best books I’ve read recently as I was engaged throughout the whole book and couldn’t put it down! There was a lot of suspense and the right number of unexpected twists that kept me guessing until the end. While there are some graphic descriptions, they were typical of the genre and weren’t overdone. The characters were easy to connect to which made me more invested in the story. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys crime or suspense novels, however I would warn readers that there are references to pedophilia and molestation that may be upsetting to some people.

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Pancake Money
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[crediblereading2]

This book is certainly full of suspense and drama. I am curious to know who killed the elderly priest. The author has given such a plateful of information on the Maori people of New Zealand and the character development used is very strong. Thank you for your detailed review of this book.

[rhendel]

If you read the book, you'll find out who killed the priest! Again, lots of twists and turns and an ending I didn't expect. Definitely read it!