Stormy Cove by Bernadette Calonego
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for providing me with an ARC of Stormy Cove in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
The Gist
I’m slowly, but surely making my way through all the approved ARCs that have been sitting in my to-read shelf on NetGalley for longer than I’m willing to admit.
Up next on my list was Stormy Cove, a mystery.
I mean, what’s not to like for someone like me? We’ve got a fishing town near the Atlantic cost serving as the background. We’ve got moody weather. We’ve got an atmosphere that goes against the perpetual cheerfulness of blue skies as observed from my window in the middle of summer.
And most importantly, we’ve got a mystery. Did I say that already? Sorry, I like atmospheric mystery novels set near water, preferably an ocean.
I got all cozy on the couch with a cup of tea within arm’s reach, ready to read.
The Details
Well, what can I say? Before the first chapter opened, before even the prologue opened, the book provides us with a list of characters that are going to show up in this story.
I thought that was kind of a cute touch. It felt very Shakesperean. A sort of dramatis personae. That was very considerate or so I thought until I flipped through four pages of this list.
It wasn’t considerate, but completely necessary, especially because once the story began, the narrator didn’t waste much time explaining which character was whom and how they were all related.
I have to admit, I already felt overwhelmed and slightly confused by page three of the character list.
No chance I would ever be able to remember all these names once they pop up in the story.
It was a recipe for confusion and frustration.
The narration also jumps abruptly between scenes, time frames and even characters. A few times I caught myself paused mid-sentence, asking myself how the story got to the point it was at. It felt like following the breadcrumbs backwards to remind myself the fifty other details that led to this particular point.
It was exhausting.
The protagonist never truly got established as such, because of all the other characters that crowded the story.
The story itself took a very long time to get started. By that time, I lost all interest in it.
I thought maybe, if I stop trying to follow every little detail and character, I could sort of follow the majority of the story. Sadly, this made things even worse.
The Verdict
Overall, I hate to say this, but this story was a bit of a mess. It felt like the author had a really good idea, pumped it full of caffeine and let it run wild, taking note of what stuck.
With some more editing, better direction and nixing a handful of the characters this could have been a decent mystery novel.
Sadly, I couldn’t get into this one.
