Looking For a Good Book

Lizbeth (Lizzie) Borden is working with Boston investigator Simon Wolf to combat certain dark entities. When a friend of Simon’s is killed in Birmingham, Alabama the pair head south. There appears to be more at work than just an angry murderer. With no obvious motive, something more sinister may be behind the killing spree. There are cultists to deal with and they are followers or supporters of creatures from the Cthulhu mythos. But this is right up Lizzie Borden’s alley – which is not to say it won’t be a challenge, but both Borden and Simon are ready.

Once again I managed to select a book that that is part of a series, this the second of two books. I definitely felt a little lost right from the start as I wasn’t understanding who this Lizzie Borden was or how she was different from the Borden of history.  Presumably the first book would have set this up much better.

This was only my first problem with the book, unfortunately. After getting acquainted with the characters (mostly by reading the synopsis of the first book along with a few reviews of that volume), I was looking forward to this. A little monster-hunting and a Cthulhu mystery was right up my alley. But the pace of this book was just incredibly slow.

I recognize that Lovecraft’s style was slow and descriptive but a modern day monster hunting book doesn’t necessarily have to follow suit. I really kept wanting something to happen, and then when it would, I’d think, “That’s it?”

This was my first foray into a book by author Cherie Priest – an author whose name I’m very familiar with, even though I’d not read her work before.

The premise here is interesting and I liked the characters (once I got to know or understand them), but the actual writing was just so blasted slow I really wanted to skip ahead, and I would have if I had a clue what to skip ahead to. Hopefully this is not indicative of Priest’s work. I’m certainly willing to read something by her again if the opportunity arose and there was something that looked interesting, but this one just bored me.

Looking for a good book? Chapelwood by Cherie Priest is the second in a two book duology. It’s slow moving and you definitely need to have some character background that presumably would come from the first book.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Chapelwood

author: Cherie Priest

series: The Borden Dispatches #2

publisher: Penguin

ISBN: 9780451466983

paperback, 434 pages