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The Minuscule Monk: A Lizzie Borden, Girl Detective Mystery
When a dead body mysteriously appears in the basement of her father’s furniture store, 15 year-old Lizzie Andrew Borden immediately takes on the case. Accompanied by an eccentric millionaire who campaigns to extend the vote to animals; a Boston terrier trained to sniff out crooked politicians; and a boy detective who believes the entire universe to be inside his own head, Lizzie follows a trail of taxidermy tools and Civil War bushwhackers to the Minuscule Monk, a legendary gunslinger whose mummified body will bring a punter’s pot to anyone who can deliver it to the New York gangster who has been hunting the Monk for decades. With such high stakes, everyone has a motive for murder, yet everyone seems innocent. Or perhaps, as Lizzie suspects after attending a dinner party with non-existent food and meeting a horse that has turned into its opposite, none of it is even real.
Lizzie Borden, the Girl Detective of Fall River, is at her most spirited in The Minuscule Monk, a comic mystery that paints a portrait of Fall River at the height of its splendor and its most infamous citizen at the start of her most excellent career.
Lizzie Borden, the Girl Detective of Fall River, is at her most spirited in The Minuscule Monk, a comic mystery that paints a portrait of Fall River at the height of its splendor and its most infamous citizen at the start of her most excellent career.
- GenresMystery
251 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 11, 2015
3 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 14, 2020
I think I may need to read this again
I have read all the books in the series and enjoyed them so I was excited to read this new book. Firstly it was much longer than the previous books. I found it very hard to get into this book, there were too many characters throughout the book which became very confusing. I battles on and liked the story but it was too much hard work.
I have read all the books in the series and enjoyed them so I was excited to read this new book. Firstly it was much longer than the previous books. I found it very hard to get into this book, there were too many characters throughout the book which became very confusing. I battles on and liked the story but it was too much hard work.
February 9, 2016
Absolutely impressive! Yet again! But then, I honestly expected nothing less from author Richard Behrens and his ongoing Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective mysteries. As with previous volumes in this extremely well crafted series, there's an awful lot to like, nay... love, about The Minuscule Monk. The characters are remarkably vivid, the narrative is ever intellectually stimulating (as all get out), and as usual, Mr. Behrens really knows how to toss delightfully deceptive literary curve balls that keep the reader mystified until just that penultimately perfect moment, of course. So who could really ask for anything more from any self styled "Indy author?"
As for me, I'd have to address such a ridiculously rhetorical query with a simple, and hopefully mostly modest request for our young heroine Lizzie to get back to the business of solving a lot more actual "mini-mysteries." For I must confess that my main, though more or less paltry grievance about The Minuscule Monk, is that its perhaps a bit too long. The narrative also skips around somewhat, delving into back stories and character development here and there. Which is all extremely interesting and very, very well written, of course, but it also sometimes feels like it distances the reader from the primary puzzle just a bit too much.
Yet overall, the book is still a remarkably entertaining and highly memorable read just the same. So no major complaints here, actually. Make no mistake, this is yet another first rate home run hit by an obvious (though admittedly, an as yet unsung) master storyteller. It's just that I for one, have up to this point, just absolutely and thoroughly enjoyed the brevity and refreshingly succinct and perfectly timed nature of the vast majority of author Behrens' shorter Lizzie Borden tales.
Why? Well, at the risk of casting myself in the unenviably dubious role of a perhaps ungrateful and shamelessly picky reader, I honestly think that the author's work has thus far lent itself much more handily to the short story format modeled in his first smattering of Lizzie Borden adventures. And hey, it worked for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the vast majority of his relatively brief Sherlock Holmes tales more often than not, I dare say.
So all in all, even though I would highly recommend the book to absolutely anyone with discriminating tastes for exceptionally well crafted fiction, I would also have to add the proviso that since I greatly enjoyed the mini-mysteries that proceeded this full length novel, I would advise reading one or all of the previous Girl Detective short stories in the series before trying to sink ones teeth into a man-sized meal the likes of The Minuscule Monk. Because even though the book itself may be about a really small guy, the mystery itself isn't particularly diminutive by any means.
So as (almost) perfectly satisfying a dish as The Miniscule Monk may in fact be, I'm afraid that I much prefer my Lizzie Borden morsels to be hacked up (if you'll pardon the perhaps all too tasteless pun) into much more easily digestible portions. That's not to say that I won't eagerly devour future full length volumes in the series, mind you. With writing as impeccable as what author Behrens so routinely seems to so effortlessly serve up, we're bound to eventually find a fully satisfying full course Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective feast on the bountiful banquet table of this ever creative and industrious writer. Of that, I am more than sure.
As for me, I'd have to address such a ridiculously rhetorical query with a simple, and hopefully mostly modest request for our young heroine Lizzie to get back to the business of solving a lot more actual "mini-mysteries." For I must confess that my main, though more or less paltry grievance about The Minuscule Monk, is that its perhaps a bit too long. The narrative also skips around somewhat, delving into back stories and character development here and there. Which is all extremely interesting and very, very well written, of course, but it also sometimes feels like it distances the reader from the primary puzzle just a bit too much.
Yet overall, the book is still a remarkably entertaining and highly memorable read just the same. So no major complaints here, actually. Make no mistake, this is yet another first rate home run hit by an obvious (though admittedly, an as yet unsung) master storyteller. It's just that I for one, have up to this point, just absolutely and thoroughly enjoyed the brevity and refreshingly succinct and perfectly timed nature of the vast majority of author Behrens' shorter Lizzie Borden tales.
Why? Well, at the risk of casting myself in the unenviably dubious role of a perhaps ungrateful and shamelessly picky reader, I honestly think that the author's work has thus far lent itself much more handily to the short story format modeled in his first smattering of Lizzie Borden adventures. And hey, it worked for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the vast majority of his relatively brief Sherlock Holmes tales more often than not, I dare say.
So all in all, even though I would highly recommend the book to absolutely anyone with discriminating tastes for exceptionally well crafted fiction, I would also have to add the proviso that since I greatly enjoyed the mini-mysteries that proceeded this full length novel, I would advise reading one or all of the previous Girl Detective short stories in the series before trying to sink ones teeth into a man-sized meal the likes of The Minuscule Monk. Because even though the book itself may be about a really small guy, the mystery itself isn't particularly diminutive by any means.
So as (almost) perfectly satisfying a dish as The Miniscule Monk may in fact be, I'm afraid that I much prefer my Lizzie Borden morsels to be hacked up (if you'll pardon the perhaps all too tasteless pun) into much more easily digestible portions. That's not to say that I won't eagerly devour future full length volumes in the series, mind you. With writing as impeccable as what author Behrens so routinely seems to so effortlessly serve up, we're bound to eventually find a fully satisfying full course Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective feast on the bountiful banquet table of this ever creative and industrious writer. Of that, I am more than sure.
August 3, 2015
Richard Behrens is a genius! He has crafted a perfectly plausible, yet utterly fantastical story of Lizzie Borden as a girl detective. I so much enjoy everything written by Richard and am amazed at his use of language and description to make a period in time come alive.
This book is more complex than his last (Lizzie Borden Girl Detective), but works so well to keep the reading interested and wondering what will befall our heroine next.
I loved this book!
This book is more complex than his last (Lizzie Borden Girl Detective), but works so well to keep the reading interested and wondering what will befall our heroine next.
I loved this book!
July 3, 2016
I started this thinking it was another "mini" mystery, but what I quickly found out was that I'd started reading a full book. Overall, it just gave me a headache. Too many characters to keep track of, as well as a mystery that ended up going around in circles, where I eventually gave up trying to make sense of it. I gave it an extra star because I did actually like the idea of several people hiring the same assassin and then having that assassin implicate a different person. Clever.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews