⋙ Download Rules of Murder A Drew Farthering Mystery Julianna Deering 9780764210952 Books

Rules of Murder A Drew Farthering Mystery Julianna Deering 9780764210952 Books

Download As PDF : Rules of Murder A Drew Farthering Mystery Julianna Deering 9780764210952 Books

Rules of Murder A Drew Farthering Mystery Julianna Deering 9780764210952 Books

I'll admit I am a great fan of Agatha Christie. I love cozy mysteries and the historical ones set in the 1920's to '50's are favorites of mine. Ms. Deering has done a fantastic job of writing a Christie-esque style murder mystery. In fact, there were times I became so intwined in the story and writing that I thought I WAS reading a Christie, and then a character would bring out some Biblical or Christian point, and I was reminded I was reading modern Christian fiction. Very well done. (By the way, the Christianity is not overdone, quite subtle overtones.)

I enjoyed the first novel of this new mystery series. Drew Farthering in the main sleuth intent on solving the double murder especially as it happened on his own estate and one of the victims was his own mother. The story included a great cast of characters who fit perfectly in this 1930's world. Nick is his right hand man and friend while Madeline is his love interest but also at his side trying to solve the crime as well. Drew and Madeline reminded me a lot of Tommy and Tuppence in their first book together (Agatha Christie characters). I look forward to seeing all these characters in the following books and how the relationship between Drew and Madeline develops.

Overall I found it to be a riveting novel, well-researched, with a mystery and writing voice perfectly suited for the time period. 5 stars.


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Rules of Murder A Drew Farthering Mystery Julianna Deering 9780764210952 Books Reviews

I do love novels set in England, with English characters, and English dialogue, and anything else English, so I eagerly anticipated this one. The characters, for the most part, are interesting in this book, and there were some moments that caused me to smile at the dialogue between them. It was often witty and very entertaining. The parts I didn't really love included Drew and Madeline's latching onto each other so very quickly, and interacting like a couple that had known each other for a longer time than just a few days. The plot was interesting, albeit containing a bit too much violence at times....but there were too many murders for my taste.There were so many characters introduced that I had a hard time keeping up with who they were and how they related to the plot, if at all. Some were just red herrings. What finally struck me as I was reading this book, and the reason it seemed so different to me as an avid reader, was that most of the action in the book was related by means of constant dialogue. Every page was full of paragraphs of quotation marks, as the characters chatted incessantly. There was little descriptive writing, and when reading the book I began to feel like I was reading a script for a play. I don't remember ever having encountered that style of writing in a novel before. By the time the real murderer was revealed, I had lost track of what his character's role had been to start with. All this is not to say I won't ever try a book by this author again, but this one just didn't leave me wanting more.
Just finished this delightful "Agatha Christie" like mystery and I can't stop thinking about it!
I must admit, this was actually my second attempt at this book. The first time, I just couldn't make myself get into it.
This time around, I listened to the audio version, and quickly fell under the spell of the narrator with a delightful British accent.
I love Drew Farthering, and I also love Madeline Parker.
The mystery of this book--the murders--they just keep piling up! This is not exactly what I'd call an action packed novel. In fact, it actually starts off a bit slow. But It picks up. Yes, quite nicely, it picks up...
This book so much reminds me of some of the Agatha Christie books I've read, and I thoroughly enjoyed the reading (or rather, in this instance, listening of it)
If you like British things. And murder mysteries, give it a chance!
Drew Farthering's life gets turned upside down the night of his mother's party. First, there's the dead body in the gardening shed, a Mr. Lincoln, and then his mother turns up dead as well. It looks very bad for Drew's stepfather, who seems to be the only person with motive for the murders. But when Drew and his friend Nick go poking around the family company on a whim, they find a secret passageway and it seems there are more deaths in the mix and more at stake than a love interest. It's up to Drew, his friend Nick, his stepfather's American niece Madeline, and of course the police, to sort through the red herrings and find out who really done it before the body count starts to get truly ridiculous.

In the back of this book is a note from the author saying that she was inspired to write this by Ronald Knox’s 1929 Decalogue, a ten commandments for mystery writers. She thought it would be fun to write a mystery that breaks every single one of the 10 rules, and thus the title (and some of the plot twists) of this book. I wasn’t familiar with the rules prior to reading this book, but I didn’t need to be. Deering writes a cracking good mystery that has all the feel of the turn of the century British mystery writers. I totally thought I had the mystery solved from pretty early on in the story, but I ended up completely wrong. Deering’s good. She’s tricky, good at keeping readers on their toes and not doing the expected but doing so in plausible ways. I was quite happy I ended up wrong, because it showed that she put in a lot of thought into the crafting of the story. I’m a big fan of turn of the century British mysteries, and Deering does a very convincing recreation here. Drew comes off as a delightful mixture of Allingham’s Campion and Nick Charles of the Thin Man series (I know, he’s American, but imagine him British). There’s also little touches that reminded me of P.G. Wodehouse’s books (particularly a friend of Drew and Nick’s named Bunny). Drew and Madeline’s interactions come off slightly goofy and sappy and over the top, but somewhat tongue-in-cheek too. They remind me of a mix of Nick & Nora Charles and Tommy & Tuppence. Contrary to the typical British mystery, Deering also mixes in little elements of Christian faith along the way too but doesn’t come off too preachy. In all, a very enjoyable tale and I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the series.

Notes on content No language issues. No sexual content. Some affairs come into the plot, but absolutely no lurid details. Obviously, this is a murder mystery and the body count gets up to about 6 when all is said and done. One stabbing is somewhat described, but the others are all just stated.
I'll admit I am a great fan of Agatha Christie. I love cozy mysteries and the historical ones set in the 1920's to '50's are favorites of mine. Ms. Deering has done a fantastic job of writing a Christie-esque style murder mystery. In fact, there were times I became so intwined in the story and writing that I thought I WAS reading a Christie, and then a character would bring out some Biblical or Christian point, and I was reminded I was reading modern Christian fiction. Very well done. (By the way, the Christianity is not overdone, quite subtle overtones.)

I enjoyed the first novel of this new mystery series. Drew Farthering in the main sleuth intent on solving the double murder especially as it happened on his own estate and one of the victims was his own mother. The story included a great cast of characters who fit perfectly in this 1930's world. Nick is his right hand man and friend while Madeline is his love interest but also at his side trying to solve the crime as well. Drew and Madeline reminded me a lot of Tommy and Tuppence in their first book together (Agatha Christie characters). I look forward to seeing all these characters in the following books and how the relationship between Drew and Madeline develops.

Overall I found it to be a riveting novel, well-researched, with a mystery and writing voice perfectly suited for the time period. 5 stars.