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John Joseph Lintott #2
The Painted Face
Every family has its secrets…
Wealthy painter and man-about-town Nicholas Carradine is haunted by his past. His family fell apart when his adored half-sister Odette was killed in a train accident. Distraught and unable to cope, his much-loved stepmother died of a fever soon after. Nicholas has never got over this childhood trauma and seeks closure to be able to move forward with his life.
Inspector John Joseph Lintott is brought out of retirement to investigate, and the more he finds out about the Carradine family the more shocked he becomes. Why was Odette alone on the train? What secrets was his father hiding from Nicholas? Can Lintott uncover all the answers Nicholas seeks?
Wealthy painter and man-about-town Nicholas Carradine is haunted by his past. His family fell apart when his adored half-sister Odette was killed in a train accident. Distraught and unable to cope, his much-loved stepmother died of a fever soon after. Nicholas has never got over this childhood trauma and seeks closure to be able to move forward with his life.
Inspector John Joseph Lintott is brought out of retirement to investigate, and the more he finds out about the Carradine family the more shocked he becomes. Why was Odette alone on the train? What secrets was his father hiding from Nicholas? Can Lintott uncover all the answers Nicholas seeks?
- GenresGothicHistorical Fiction
280 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1974
134 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Jean Stubbs
64 books13 followersAka Emma Darby
Jean was born in Lancashire and educated in Manchester. She has written many novels and short stories for magazines and collections, several of which have been adapted for radio and television. She has lived for more than twenty years in a cottage in Cornwall, England, with her husband.
Jean was born in Lancashire and educated in Manchester. She has written many novels and short stories for magazines and collections, several of which have been adapted for radio and television. She has lived for more than twenty years in a cottage in Cornwall, England, with her husband.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 28, 2019
I received this book from Sapere Books in exchange for an honest review.
I was excited to have the chance to read the second in the Detective Lintott series, and I had read the first and liked it immensely.
I was disappointed in this book! Without giving too much away, here's why:
1. There were a few times where the wrong character's name was used. In one instance Carradine is in the room with Claire and the narrator says that Lintott is speaking when Lintott is away in Orange.
2. This was not a straight mystery. The narrator rotates between Carradine and Lintott, and I found Carradine's sections rather dull.
3. The mystery is only a small part of the story. The relationship between Carradine and Natalie and Claire takes up a lot of space, so that reads more like a romance.
4. The plot is far fetched. (I will say no more on this, but you will see what I mean when you read it.) I suspected the solution to the mystery early on which was disappointing.
This book was completely different than Dear Laura, the first in the series. It's almost as if there were two different authors.
I was excited to have the chance to read the second in the Detective Lintott series, and I had read the first and liked it immensely.
I was disappointed in this book! Without giving too much away, here's why:
1. There were a few times where the wrong character's name was used. In one instance Carradine is in the room with Claire and the narrator says that Lintott is speaking when Lintott is away in Orange.
2. This was not a straight mystery. The narrator rotates between Carradine and Lintott, and I found Carradine's sections rather dull.
3. The mystery is only a small part of the story. The relationship between Carradine and Natalie and Claire takes up a lot of space, so that reads more like a romance.
4. The plot is far fetched. (I will say no more on this, but you will see what I mean when you read it.) I suspected the solution to the mystery early on which was disappointing.
This book was completely different than Dear Laura, the first in the series. It's almost as if there were two different authors.
April 12, 2020
Huge disappointment after the first one. Half the book was the musings, rantings etc of the painter. Not very interesting at all. Pity. Kept flicking through to find out when Lintott was going to appear again as he was the only thing interesting in the book.
May 13, 2019
John Joseph Lintott is a retired Scotland Yard detective. He is approached by Nicholas Carradine to discover the truth about his little sister’s death 20 years previously.
This is billed as a Victorian mystery. As the action starts in 1902 it is actually Edwardian – a tiny detail but it did irritate me.
This book started well and I did enjoy it. However, I did feel that it went down hill about half way through. It is hard to analyse what exactly went wrong but the style of the writing seemed to change. The book had started as a good, solid detective story mainly full of facts with only a small amoutn of fluffiness. However, once the characters embarked on a trip to France there seemed to be much more “padding” in the story. There was a lot of fantasy thoughts from the character – Nicholas Carradine and the french ladies he meets in Paris. There is, quite frankly, a lot of waffle which was unnecessary to the story. I got the impression that the author felt the book wasn’t going to be long enough so padded it out. This made the book quite tedious to read as I needed to plough through it to get to the facts.
I liked Lintott. A down to earth Londoner who has his first trip abroad. He likes his family and home and is set in his ways – women’s sufferage is incomprehensible to him. He does, however, seem to glean a tremendous amount from body language from the French people he meets! Nicholas Carradine is a bit of an airy fairy character with strange ideas. There is a lot of padding around his character – his paintings & his relationship with the French ladies – that I found it hard to really get a grasp on who he was. One minute he is sleepless because he wants to know what happened to his sister, then suddenly he has fallen in love and no longer cares. Most odd.
When you look at the nitty gritty of this book it wasn’t too bad. The basic story is reasonable though quite predictable. It is all the padding out of the story which made it incomprehensible in places and dragged it down. I won’t be seeking out any further books in this series.
I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.
This is billed as a Victorian mystery. As the action starts in 1902 it is actually Edwardian – a tiny detail but it did irritate me.
This book started well and I did enjoy it. However, I did feel that it went down hill about half way through. It is hard to analyse what exactly went wrong but the style of the writing seemed to change. The book had started as a good, solid detective story mainly full of facts with only a small amoutn of fluffiness. However, once the characters embarked on a trip to France there seemed to be much more “padding” in the story. There was a lot of fantasy thoughts from the character – Nicholas Carradine and the french ladies he meets in Paris. There is, quite frankly, a lot of waffle which was unnecessary to the story. I got the impression that the author felt the book wasn’t going to be long enough so padded it out. This made the book quite tedious to read as I needed to plough through it to get to the facts.
I liked Lintott. A down to earth Londoner who has his first trip abroad. He likes his family and home and is set in his ways – women’s sufferage is incomprehensible to him. He does, however, seem to glean a tremendous amount from body language from the French people he meets! Nicholas Carradine is a bit of an airy fairy character with strange ideas. There is a lot of padding around his character – his paintings & his relationship with the French ladies – that I found it hard to really get a grasp on who he was. One minute he is sleepless because he wants to know what happened to his sister, then suddenly he has fallen in love and no longer cares. Most odd.
When you look at the nitty gritty of this book it wasn’t too bad. The basic story is reasonable though quite predictable. It is all the padding out of the story which made it incomprehensible in places and dragged it down. I won’t be seeking out any further books in this series.
I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.
March 22, 2019
1902 and Nicholas Carradine employs ex-detective Inspector John Lintott to investigate the train accident that killed his six-year old half-sister Odetto, twenty years ago. The case take Lintott to the scene of the crash in France.
I enjoyed the mystery of this story but the books should probably be called a romance and mystery story.
I enjoyed the mystery of this story but the books should probably be called a romance and mystery story.
April 20, 2022
good but…
New to this author, I was surprised to find her Inspector such a fuddy-daddy bore. But I realize he’s a man of his time and at least saw a glimmer of light occasionally. As for the mystery, there really wasn’t one. I figured it out immediately. Not nearly as satisfying as Anne Perry
New to this author, I was surprised to find her Inspector such a fuddy-daddy bore. But I realize he’s a man of his time and at least saw a glimmer of light occasionally. As for the mystery, there really wasn’t one. I figured it out immediately. Not nearly as satisfying as Anne Perry
August 8, 2020
Started off okay and thought it would be like Dear Laura. Ended up I skipped three quarters of the book. Did not care for the plot, characters, or wordy-ness that went nowhere. Will not read the next one in line.
April 29, 2020
Marvelous
Awesomely written! Couldn’t put it down. Loved the ending the beginning and the middle! Looking forward to reading the next book in the Lintott series.series!
Awesomely written! Couldn’t put it down. Loved the ending the beginning and the middle! Looking forward to reading the next book in the Lintott series.series!
June 26, 2019
I only got about halfway through this book. I was much more interested in the mystery aspect of the story and the investigator character. Once the painter character starts developing a relationship with a young woman who was raised in an orphanage, it became clear the path the story was taking. Perhaps it is cheating to use the law of conservation of detail to solve the mystery halfway through, but what can ya do.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 3, 2019
Even if this is not a boring or badly written book it was not my cup of tea.
I found hard to get involved and I found the plot a bit confusing.
Many thanks to Sapere Books and Netgalley for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all opinions are mine
I found hard to get involved and I found the plot a bit confusing.
Many thanks to Sapere Books and Netgalley for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all opinions are mine
June 18, 2019
I didn’t enjoy this as much as the first book it was confusing in places and there wasn’t much character development, I didn’t feel like I got to know the characters well through the course of the book. The story was interesting and I felt like was intrigued to know what happened next
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews