Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Unfortunately, I had to struggle through this book. The author states this is the first of a series called "Fitzjohn Mystery Series". What puzzled me was that the Fitzjohn character is not the one driving the story (which is what is supposed to happen if you name your series after the character). In this novel, we barely see Fitzjohn through the book. Not only this, but the little we learn about him is almost like the author copied Agatha Christie's "Poirot" but made him British and a widower to throw off her readers from identifying where his little quirks came from. Meanwhile, the so-called no. 1 suspect drives the story, albeit not too well. The novel blurb states that James, the suspect, has to prove his innocence because he is under great suspicion from the police, and that Fitzjohn is so meticulous in his investigation that he'll leave no stone unturned to bring the killer to justice (or some such). Meanwhile, the only information Fitzjohn digs up is mainly what the suspect feeds him. We don't see Fitzjohn investigating anything. It seems that bits and pieces of the puzzle are dropped in his lap by James. As for James, it seems all the suspects/witnesses are willing to talk to him without much prompting, even a woman who didn't want to be found by anyone as she lived in fear of the person who seems to be the real killer. But along comes James, a total stranger, and she blabs everything to him. I mean, come on! I'm 3/4 through this book and really struggling to finish it, if only to see who the real killer is, but it's difficult to take the story seriously when the characters are so undeveloped and the so-called great Fitzjohn is barely in the picture. This story had the potential to be good if only the great detective, Fitzjohn, actually did some detecting. To me, this is a very poor attempt at making an Agatha Christie novel into a contemporary one with a rehashed British-style "Poirot". The characters are flat, uninteresting, and there is absolutely no depth to them whatsoever. The plot needs development big time, and the characters need to be developed so they can at least be perceived as believable.