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Bettie's Books

A Stuga On the Cusp of the Orust Riviera, tucked away next to a hobbit hole in the woods.

The Sweet Smell of Decay: Being the First Chronicle of Harry Lytle (Harry Lytle Chronicles #1)

The Sweet Smell of Decay - Paul  Lawrence

bookshelves: published-2009, spring-2010, mystery-thriller, historical-fiction, restoration, books-with-a-passport

Recommended for: Onto Wanda then Hayes
Read from April 10 to 17, 2010

 

Blurb from the back cover - Cromwell is dead, Charles Stuart has claimed the throne, and the city is charged with a new and bawdy energy. Personal fueds and religious tensions simmer, but the irrepressible Harry Lytle just gets on with his own life - dull as ditch by day, fogged by the fumes of London's nfinest taverns by night. Until one day, his cousin is found tied to the pulpit of St. Bride's, the victim of a horrible murder.

A trusted advisor to the King tasks Lytle with finding out the identity of the killer, with the assistance of David Dowling, a great hulking butcher of uncommon wit and ability.


Sounds a juicy romp, doesn't it!?

As I gazed upon her face a small black beetle emerged from the ruins of her right eye.

The writing style left me quite cold to start off with and I toyed with spurning the whole caboodle but am glad of my perseverance because I would of missed out on a few fun moments.

LATER -

Okay - some of the action takes place in Epsom, the town where I was born and lived until my mid-teens. It is also the town where Charlie Two used to shag consult Nell Gwynne on the freshness of her oranges. The description of the Wells being situated in the common aside the road to Ashtead is totally real whereas the large house of the Ormondes 'lying on a hill' is where the fiction starts.

LATER AGAIN -

(On Page 150) Whole paragraphs are repeated (check out bottom 105 - top 106). Dear author please note how hard I am trying not to send this to room 101.

'Malodorous' was used on page 258 ensuring an additional star.