Death in Printers Alley: a Shane Hadley mystery
Ken Brigham
4.0 (1 rating)
Death in Printers Alley: a Shane Hadley mystery
Published: January 1, 2015
Pages: 380
Reader Reviews
4.0
1 rating
Charlene M.
Apr 18, 2026
The Good:
The descriptions were wonderful and you could really tell that the author knows his subjects, his city and settings and his characters. I love the idea of the wheelchair bound protagonist and the hot wife, while something of a cliché, was an interesting character on her own. I also liked the dynamics between Hadley and his sidekick, lol.
The Not-So-Good:
The first forty odd pages need a good edit and revise. There was a lot of tense switching and character voices kept changing. But what I really really disagree with is the author's choice to give away the 'who dunit' right away. This removed all tension from the book (or most of it) and made it harder to read because we already knew what was going on. There was no longer a mystery and every time it looked like there would be an interesting red herring, it was immediately discussed and dismissed. As a result, on an unconscious level, I found myself rolling my eyes a lot and wondering how characters could both miss the obvious and, from our point of view, jump on the inane. It would have been a lot better if the who dunit had been hidden right until the end and we got to build up our tension with the characters.
All in all, it's a good story, but it is spoiled by the author spoiling it too early. Still, it's worth the read for the descriptions and character dynamics (after the first part of the book) alone.
The descriptions were wonderful and you could really tell that the author knows his subjects, his city and settings and his characters. I love the idea of the wheelchair bound protagonist and the hot wife, while something of a cliché, was an interesting character on her own. I also liked the dynamics between Hadley and his sidekick, lol.
The Not-So-Good:
The first forty odd pages need a good edit and revise. There was a lot of tense switching and character voices kept changing. But what I really really disagree with is the author's choice to give away the 'who dunit' right away. This removed all tension from the book (or most of it) and made it harder to read because we already knew what was going on. There was no longer a mystery and every time it looked like there would be an interesting red herring, it was immediately discussed and dismissed. As a result, on an unconscious level, I found myself rolling my eyes a lot and wondering how characters could both miss the obvious and, from our point of view, jump on the inane. It would have been a lot better if the who dunit had been hidden right until the end and we got to build up our tension with the characters.
All in all, it's a good story, but it is spoiled by the author spoiling it too early. Still, it's worth the read for the descriptions and character dynamics (after the first part of the book) alone.