M.J.Carter - The Devil's Feast

Rating: 2/5

Review:
Not for me

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley.  This normally means that I feel obliged to finish a book, but I'm afraid that after 150 pages or so of The Devil's Feast I just got so bored that I decided that enough was enough.

It's not that it's terrible.  M.J. Carter can write well and she gets the Victorian voice sufficiently accurately to be pretty convincing – although some very modern, US-originated usages do creep in, like "Are we done, gentlemen?" or an oath beginning with "What the <expletive deleted>…" which grate very badly.  My real problem was that very little actually happened among the Sumptuous Detail.  We were introduced to a large cast of characters in whom I found I had very little interest; there are long, long descriptions of the workings of the kitchens at the Reform Club and rather clunky expositions of the politics of the time, for example; we get seemingly endless chapters in which Avery wanders around rather aimlessly talking to people while not knowing what to do, and so on.  There's also some business involving Blake which is so derivative as to be laughably transparent – except to Avery, apparently.

I'm happy to stick with a slow opening, but I'm afraid I need a little more than this by the time I've read over a third of a 350-page book.  Others seem to have found this involving and entertaining, and you may find that you enjoy it, too.  Personally, I'd had all I could take and bailed out.  Not for me, I'm afraid.