Reading Harper is always a double-edged experience for me. I enjoy her atmospheric writing initially until it overwhelms me with unnecessary and often repetitive details. I prefer my mysteries to have taut plot lines and a focus on the investigative process. A little context and background information is fine, maybe a soupçon of romance if unavoidable (I’m not a fan of romance!), but I don’t need to have entire chapters focused on the characters’ love lives and irrelevant background details that do nothing to push the plot forward! Also, the fact that I find Falk himself very juvenile doesn’t help matters 😄 This story could have and should have been told in 200 pages! The rest is all sauce! That’s my rant and I’m sticking with it! 

I hope this brings the Falk series to an end because I don’t think I can survive another one of these snail-paced, slow-burner books. In this one, Falk is visiting his friend Raco’s family for his son Henry christening ceremony. Falk is to be his God-father. While he’s visiting, there’s a local Food & Wine festival, at which a friend of the family Kim disappeared a year ago. There are undercurrents and subtle tensions all over the place and Falk along with Raco navigate what is essentially a minefield of relationships and emotions to figure out what happened to Kim. It isn’t a bad mystery but it isn’t particularly original either. Some parts were believable while others felt contrived. I’d figured out the solutions to both events - a disappearance and an old hit and run, way before Harper provides solutions in her last few chapters. It felt good to be right after slogging through all those words! 

If only she’d shed her verbiage, I’d be so much happier. It’s a good thing I’ve read her after a long break. She’s not an author I can binge. Small doses is the way to go for me.