Status Updates From Gold Digger (A Klondike Mys...

Vicki is a very good writer and her approach creative: a shocking moment first, backing up a few days to describe what its impact is, continuing from there. The problem is it doesn't categorize as a mystery book until we reach the point of the murder discovery, at page 114. I'm strict about mysteries feeling, pacing as, and being mysteries first. The historical, relationships, extraneous detail should be second.

I love the story of Angus along the way, a twelve year-old in a unique period, when a boy can be a boy but is soon regarded as a man simultaneously. I just would like this author to tone down the constant description of how people are smelling, the imperfection of faces, hands, hair, and what they are wearing. Especially repeating these on people she has already described. We got it, move on to the mystery please.

It's a shame this didn't feel like a mystery before now. It could have, although I appreciate the author's creativity. We start with a crime, then go back through acquaintance with the victim, leading up to it. Creative but too descriptive, like constantly reminding us Ray Walker has greasy hair. Gross & unnecessary. I'm acutely sick of the word 'trousers'. Can't she write 'slacks' and 'pants' interchangeably?

I believe we are going to snap into mystery mode now. However it shouldn't take 118 pages. I'm going to give the author a pass for describing a historic, very specific and recognizable setting for a first volume of a series. Still, it should have felt like a mystery all along the way and it didn't. I'm being candid because in my review, I like to be a lot kinder on the more visible record left for an author.

Ack! There is too much description. Beyond Fiona's son, business partner, semi beau and colleagues; telling us what passing people or card-players are wearing (or constantly, how they smell) is beyond what I care to know in a story. Please pick up the pace and keep everything moving. I needn't be so familiar with every angle of each page that it becomes like an essay. A mystery should shoot to the point.

I'm unsure how I feel. I like the protagonist, her son, gentleman pursuer, and Dawson City's constable. However I see Vicki Delany is among very descriptive authors, which isn't always my forté unless it is emotions being described. I grant that a historic novel, unique region, and series opener merit introduction. I happened to prepare myself for Yukon 1898, with two books prior and was ready to jump in.