Description (from cover):'At the dawn of the Restoration period, Suzanne Thorton hopes to find a second life in the theater. But instead, on opening night, she finds a dead body onstage...
The triumphant return of King Charles II in 1660 is occasion for much celebration in London. The Merry Monarch's unquenchable thirst for entertainment creates opportunities for everyone from tavern keepers to brothel owners to actors.
One of these is Suzanne Thorton. No longer a kept woman since her man fled, she sees an opportunity to reopen a theater and stage the greats--Shakespeare, Marlowe, and the like. And now, thanks to Royal decree, women can openly tread the boards.
Suzanne secures financing from an old lover, assembles a troupe, and restores the venue--none other than the historic Globe Theater. And then, tragically, during the opening night performance, a dead body lands on the stage.
After the curtain comes down, Suzanne finds herself a suspect. But she also finds that murder is good for business--the next night's performance is sold out. Wishing to live to enjoy her success, Suzanne undertakes her own investigation to find a killer who may try to close her down for good...'
My thoughts:
There are some books that I get really excited to read, especially the beginning books of a new series. This one caught my eye some time ago, and I waited for my local library to get it. Once they did, I knew that I had to read it. I hate the hype that books can create and the reader can get so excited about it and then actually read it and be so disappointed. I was so utterly disappointed with this book. I just couldn't like the main character and the mystery was so non-existent that it really shouldn't be classified as a mystery.
This book takes forever to actually get to the mystery part and spends the first half of the book giving the background information about the main characters. I get the logic behind that, but really does it take that long to get the background information? I like mysteries that happen at the beginning and then fill the reader in as to the back story along the way of the murder investigation. I was so bored with this book and couldn't actually wait to finish it. That sounds so bad, and I should have stopped reading this one early on, but I held a small sliver of hope that the author would pick up the pace and that I would become more interested. Not the case.
I hate that I was expecting this book to be so much better than it was. I hate that I was utterly disappointed. I just couldn't get into this one at all and I don't think that I will be continuing with this series. Even though this is the first book and the second tends to get a little better, in my reading history, I just cannot get past the fact that I hate the main character. That would make it very hard for me to continue with this series. Suzanne is a deeply flawed character, which isn't the problem, I just don't like that she seems like a mooch. I like my heroines to be a little more stronger and more self-sufficient than this one.
Overall Rating: 1
Title: The Opening Night Murder
Author: Anne Rutherford
Series: Restoration Mystery #1
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Publication Date: December 31, 2012
Pages: 320
Genre: Historical Mystery
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
Disclaimer: This book was selected from the library by myself and I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.
