Friday, July 13, 2018

Delivering the Truth (A Quaker Midwife Mystery) Paperback – April 8, 2016 by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink)



I am a fan of historical mysteries because I love learning things while I try to solve the mystery along with the protagonist and 'Delivering the Truth' is captivating from the standpoint that it occurs in Historical New England. The protagonist is a Quaker and a midwife. These are two things I know very little about and the author did a great job in educating me. The author also included introducing new technologies of the time, a safety bike and a cartridge pen among a few others.

Some challenges that I had with reading this book is that the 'thee's and thy's' slowed the flow of reading but it did help set the character well so I can forgive that. What also slowed the reading is the constant weather updates. I understand that weather can contribute to the book's atmosphere but continual long descriptions of the weather did not enhance the plot in any meaningful way. I got the impression the town was a cesspool of gossips! The protagonist listened to gossip and repeating gossip. The gossip was important to the plot but constant repetition really slowed the pace. Hearing it once and moving on should be sufficient. I found the protagonist shallow, nieve, and one dimensional though likable. What really bothered me is that, after the climax of the story, the protagonist did not undergo any profound internal change or even signs of PTSD after facing her possible murder (not trying to be a spoiler here). In general, the author tends to repeat a lot of things in addition to weather and gossip. For example, everything the protagonist was with her safety bike she had a conversation with every person she was in contact with about the novelty of the bike. The reader was informed initially about this new technology and does not need to keep hearing about its novelty more than once. The biggest disappointment was the ending. After the author brought the reader through the wonderfully constructed twists and turns of an awesome plot, she ends the book by non-passionately repeating everything that happened to the protagonist and the reactions of her family were not of horror or shock. As a reader, I was already familiar with what had happened and didn't really want to hear it all over again as the protagonist relayed her experiences.

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