No expense but taxes

I made my way to the socialist Northfield Public Library. Once again I was taking advantage of the taxpayers of the city. Of course, in order to get there I took advantage of the taxpayers by driving on the completely subsidized streets and stopping at the taxpayer-funded stop signs and stop lights. Thank you to all of you who paid for all that. Including me, of course.

In any case, there's no fee for checking out books from the library. I checked out An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd.

Unlike Wings of Fire, that I read in January, this was "A Bess Crawford Mystery." The Ian Rutledge character and the voice in his head were a bit much, and the story telling was laborious. The earlier Bess Crawford story (A Duty to the Dead) was better.

An Impartial Witness was not.

I skimmmed the final two-thirds of the book. I don't think I missed anything important.

Bess Crawford's father is a retired Army general, Victorian style. Why he doesn't lock her in her room until stops her obsessive pursuit of murderers, I don't know. Somebody should lock her in her room. The mother-son duo who write as Charles Todd aren't likely to do it. Whatever their process for scripting and writing mysteries is, it's no longer functional from my point of view. I will no longer look for their books on library or bookstore shelves.

At least I didn't have to buy the book.

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The authors' web page for An Impartial Witness
A summary of 622 ratings at Good Reads
Beth Crowley's review at Murder by Type
NomadReader's review at nomadreader

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