Death in Fine Condition by Andrew Cartmel

Death in Fine Condition by Andrew Cartmel
Buy Death in Fine Condition by Andrew Cartmel at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Crime
Reviewer: Ruth Ng
Summary: A slightly fraudulent second hand bookseller finds herself embroiled in something a bit more than she'd bargained for. Whilst it was slow to start the pace picked up, and I really enjoyed some of the side characters.
Buy? Maybe	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 336	Date: June 2023
Publisher: Titan Books (UK)
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 9781789098945
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Cordelia really loves classic paperback crime fiction, and in particular a series called Sleuth Hound. She spends her time hunting out copies that she can sell on for profit, sometimes 'tweaking' them, to add value, in somewhat fraudulent ways. One day she discovers a near perfect collection of these books after seeing them in the background of a photograph on her drug dealer's living room wall, and so she sets about discovering where this collection is, and how she can steal it! It's a next-level step in her petty crime career, but has she reached too far, and what will happen when the owner of the collection comes looking for their books?

It took me quite some time to get into this story. I couldn't seem to get a feel for the main character who is really not very likeable. And because she's unlikeable, it felt ploddingly hard to read to begin with, as I just didn't care what happened to her and I actually wanted her to be caught! She also seems to be forever taking drugs, and then heading for a steamy bath to pleasure herself. It felt a little bit puerile to me, but maybe it's just not my style of story! Anyway, I persevered and honestly, it did get better, but I think it's only right that you get the heads up about the slow start and the multiple bath scenes!

As things move along, I did find myself more caught up in what was happening, and the action does ramp up, with more action as you read. Cordelia is still difficult, but I became more interested in the plot around her books and where they'd come from. I enjoyed it as she started to investigate more (though I did wonder at nobody noticing what she was doing around London). But when she seems to be carrying around 100 paperbacks in a rucksack, I did wonder if the author has ever come anywhere near trying to pick up 100 books! It continued to be a little bit mixed, as you can see, but I did really like her landlord (and also his dog) and I would like to read more about both of them! I also enjoyed another side character of an artist that Cordelia meets later on in the book. Perhaps Cordelia is just a work in progress, and the author is still finding his feet with her too.

I wondered if perhaps I needed to have read his other series, The Vinyl Detective to fully appreciate the story, as apparently the two worlds do crossover with some characters? Maybe that might have helped at the beginning when I wasn't sure where the story was going. It seems this is the first of a new series to be all about The Paperback Sleuth so I'm sure Cordelia will be back, and hopefully I will feel a bit more cordial towards her in her next adventure!

If you fancy a look at this author's earlier series, take a look at our review of The Vinyl Detective - The Run-Out Groove.

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