Title: The Framed Women of Ardemore House
Author: Brandy Schillace
Series: n/a ?
Lacks focus but great characters
Omg, I’m preparing this review and unexpectedly watching Schillace on the “Strange Experiments” episode of The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd (History Channel). How funny is that?
Much thanks to Brandy Schillace, Harlequin Trade Publishing/Hanover Square Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Also thank you to Kali Luckhee for inviting me to join the blog tour.
I liked this book, but the writing wasn’t the best. It felt amateurish, lacking in finesse. It’s hard to describe the vibe I got from it. The prose was…. straightforward, perhaps? Lacking a certain rhythm to carry the reader smoothly from one word to the next. Flow, I believe it’s called. A line editor was badly needed.
I also felt the mystery was a little convoluted. Jo and her paintings were only connected in the most tangential way, which made her feel like a secondary character instead of a protagonist. Personally, I’d have focused on her story (aka her mysterious family history) in this first book, with intermittent problems with Sid, then he could have died in the second and this mystery could have been centered there.
Because I did not appreciate being left with questions regarding Jo, especially since there is no evidence of this book being first in a series, aside from those questions.
I was completely surprised to find that DCI MacAdams is a co-protagonist. He was only vaguely mentioned in the blurb. When I got over the shock of discovering this book would be at least 50% police procedural, which neither the cover nor the blurb so much as hinted at, I realized the book was suffering an identity crisis because of the problem I described above; Schillace was trying to tell two different stories, and the marketing dept had to pick one or the other: mysterious, atmospheric old manor hiding centuries of heartbreaking secrets….. or blackmail scheme.
Their decision was understandable.
I loved Jo as a character. She was likeable, she was sympathetic, she was relatable. (Her aversion to calling people—ME TOO! EXACTLY!) She got all the best lines—some solutions were shaped like hammers, the old dishes had murder on them, her one superpower, and my favorite, sweating down her ass crack. I loved her encyclopedic mind, I loved how she used words to focus and calm down, I loved how much she cared about a woman who died a hundred years ago. I loved Jo, which is why it chaps my ass that she wasn’t treated like a true protagonist.
I liked Green and Rachel, I liked Gwilym, I liked Roberta, I liked Tula and Ben. The characters were awesome; Schillace definitely has talent in characterization.
I liked MacAdams, too, but he needed an arc. Also, he didn’t seem like a very good detective. He’s allowed to make mistakes, of course, but he made enough to come off as incompetent. There’s making a character relatable, then there’s making the reader lose faith in them. I, for one, seriously doubt MacAdams handled the case as well as he should have. It seemed to take forever for him to do basic sleuthing; it was obvious that Schillace was deliberately withholding breakthroughs in the case for the sake of pacing. Which isn’t a bad thing, in fact it’s necessary. What’s bad is that it was so obvious, and led to me feeling frustration. E.g., Elsie felt important very early, simply because they couldn’t get a hold of her. Then she made an entrance at the funeral. Yet it took them FOREVER to track her down and have a proper conversation.
And come to think of it, he never did interview Ricky.
This matter I saved for last because many would consider it irrelevant, but it bothered me so much I can’t not mention it. I hope the galley I received was a pretty early version of the script, because holy crap, it was a mess. Typos everywhere, multiple names weren’t spelled consistently, I think the timeline was wrong at least twice, and the mix of American vs. UK terms (e.g., “dollars” on one page, “pounds” on the next) made my brain itch. Galleys are supposed to be unpolished, but usually it’s a matter of a few typos and weird spacing. This felt like reading a script rough enough that changes to the story could still be made. Please god let the published version be much better.
Overall, I liked this book, but it was not well executed. Great characters, even if the protags were shorted one way or another, and the plot involving the Ardemores is super intriguing—if only it would have been the focus.
Below is some seriously cool artwork by Schillace relative to this novel.
