Review: Death by Noir

Death by Noir by Olly Smith
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 27%.

I really wanted to like this book. I love Olly Smith on tv and I was excited about a cosy mystery centred on wine in England. Unfortunately, what I love about watching Olly does not (for me) translate well into writing. This was just too flowery, very much like a wine description, everything was over-described - do I really need to know the year, make, model, and registration number of someone's car? It could have been done more organically, eg Barclay loved his vintage car, even called it the Duke because his number plate started DUK, but not just a turgid recital of "1970 Rover P5B coupe in silver birch with the contrasting roof in burnt grey. DUK 922J has been Barclay's pride and joy ...". Also the book was written from the viewpoint of the omniscient narrator which is, I think, a tricky style to carry off, it comes across as too remote and you don't get to know any of the characters. And everything seemed to be about wine, a wine shop, vineyards etc - even I said too much wine!

Anyway, I should have known after the debacle with the Rev Richard Coles' book which I did at least finish, but wish I hadn't.

One for wine aficionado's I suggest.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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