Satan Reviews- Books: A Demon Summer (Max Tudor #4)

A Demon Summer (Max Tudor #4)

G.M. Malliet

Constable

Spoilers and the like and probs me giving up on spelling Lislelivet. Lislelivet isn't even his last name anyway.

Where to begin with this novel? I've read a different G.M. Malliet novel, from a different series which I apparently liked (if my very short review is anything to go by). I did say something about the murder taking place too far into the book and I didn't like the prologue. Which is similar to this novel too.

The actual prologue in this book is about three pages, but at the same time, I don't think the story actually starts until about page 50 because that's when Max finally gets to the Abbey where most of the novel takes place.
There was so much set up to this novel that I basically gave up for about a week because I couldn't be arsed to wait so long for the plot to pick up. Was it necessary to use over 200 pages to build up to the murder? Honestly, in my opinion, no. The murder took place on page 206 of my copy which is literally the middle page. This meant that Max only had another 200 pages to solve the murder and tie up other loose ends. Which should have been easy because the 200 pages basically said a whole lot of nothing at times. Especially considering 50 pages were used just for a Poirot-esque talk at people so everything that hasn't been explained is explained. In this book's case, that was literally everything that was set up.

I'm just a bit disappointed with the fact that Lord Lisleivet who was murdered. In my opinion, the blurb suggested it wasn't him who was murdered, also the fact that the actual character is in the book for less than ten pages. With the fact that Max talked to the nuns for most of the set up, I though it would be one of them, or even Xanda because plot twists do exist. I felt like the murder of a nun was more set up than Lord Lislivet as they were actually present in the novel. I'm pretty much sure that his death was an accident in the end anyway. I felt cheated by this because we've spent so long going through everyone's alibis and shit to then spend 50 pages (kinda) to go through this weird cycle of saying who the murderer was and then saying it wasn't them and then saying it was.

The resolutions were pretty lacklustre in the end. Lord Lislivet kidnapped his baby brother because he was illegitimate and had some weird inferiority complex or something. I thought that the novel was setting up Piers Montague as the missing baby because he was the only other youngish, non-recurring, male character and because why not? Nope, he was just related to Lord Lislevivet through some other way. To be honest, I have no idea what was happening at this point. Which was a let down as it means that part of that thread is never really sorted.
It was also revealed that Dame Meredith was actually Lord Twatface's mum, not his aunt. And I didn't care. She was the "murderer", and intended on killing Lord Doucheface because he was a shithead but he flipped and fell so his death was an accident. Wonderful.

Dame Pet and Doctor Bernard (I don't care about their names at this point) were accused and then absolved, sort of, multiple times at the end of this book. Tudor had somehow figured out their entire plan and, after suggesting Dame Pet had been framed, went through a massive rant (with finger pointing) about how they committed a crime they didn't even commit. Terrific.
They even knew Lord LeTwat before the novel took place, i.e. when he had his little brother kidnapped. He ruined their lives for fucks sake. But nope, they did everything but kill him.

What else happened? Erm... Max knew someone wasn't a real nun because she had good eyebrows. There's like four P.O.V.s in the first few pages after the prologue and that pointless chapter from Abbess Justina's P.O.V. Did any of these extra P.O.V.s further the plot? Nope. Did they make me feel confused and tired and I just wanted to sleep.

And just so you remember, Max loves Awena and their unborn child. Also, they're not married, yet. Just so you remember because you'll be told multiple times.

Anyway, I rated this book 1 star out of 5 because *internal screaming*.