Book Review for Death of a Flying Nightingale by Laura Jensen Walker ((Nightingale Mystery #1). This book is listed under the genres of Historical Fiction and it’s a Nightingale Mystery Book 1.
What I Enjoyed:
- The historical setting
- The historical influences (mentioned in the Author’s Note)
- The Nightingales
- The characters
I enjoyed the characters Mauve, Betty, and Albert. Etta’s backstory was tragic. The Author’s Note at the end of the book is very helpful for understanding the historical background and why certain things happen in the book. If you want to appreciate the book more, the author’s note is a must read.
I also did enjoy one of the romances (there are many in this book). One of them was sweet and kept me reading on.
What I didn’t enjoy:
There’s no mystery to solve or be solved by a sleuth (-1.0 star):
I took off 1 star because this book isn’t a good mystery. There are three deaths and the characters wonder: who did it and why? But if you’re expecting sleuthing, clues, a list of suspects in a traditional sense, that doesn’t happen in this book. At the end of the book there is a confession. None of the characters actually finds out who did it. Throughout most of the book, you may be left wondering: does anyone even care about the deaths? After the first Nightingale is discovered dead, the story skips over it and moves on to romance until about midway through the last half of the book.
The Romances:
I’m personally not a romance genre reader. However, I did enjoy the romance between Albert and Betty. Their relationship is sweet even if it mostly occurs through letters.
However, I wasn’t expecting this book to jump from character to character often from one paragraph to another. And it also jumps from romance story to another romance story.
No Character Arc (-0.5star):
Because this book jumps from character to character and romance to romance, there was no character arc. No overarching themes. No lessons learned from the characters. The Nightingales are heroic by virtue of being brave nurses, but they don’t evolve in any way. They are brave from the beginning until the end with no growth as people. Same goes for the other characters in the novel. Even after they learn who did the murders it doesn’t change anything and everyone moves on with their lives.
The Boring Points (-0.5 star):
The lack of story structure, character development, jumping from character to character and romance to romance, and then anecdotes from the war made this story difficult to finish. At many points, I thought I would DNF this book because I kept wondering, why should I continue?
The Strange Religious Commentary (-0.5 star) :
As a Catholic myself, I’m not sure how to feel about how many times Catholicism, religion is mentioned in this book.
The commentary is strange, misappropriated, and borderline offensive at points. The word “Catholic” is mentioned 5 times, “Jesus” is mentioned 2 + 4 times (misspelled), “religious”, “religion” 5 times, “prayer” 10 times, “sin”, “mortal sin” 4 times, “crucifix”, “crucifixion” 3 times.
I should add that the relationship between Albert and Betty was completely wholesome. I mention this because they express their faith in a good way. Other parts of the novel seem critical of Catholic teaching in regard to chastity until marriage, teaching on life & hell (CCC 2280 – 2283) “we should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance.” I found the story of the crucifix offensive, but in the author’s note it’s mentioned to be based on a true story.
I gave this book a 2.5 but I’ll round up to 3.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing this book in exchange for an honest review. #DeathofaFlyingNightingale #NetGalley
I hope this book review for Death of a Flying Nightingale by Laura Jensen Walker (Nightingale Mystery #1) was helpful.
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Best,
Anita