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A review by fiorentinabelga
Omens of Death by Richard Kurti
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.0
Thank you to Netgalley and Sapere Books for providing a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Omens of Death has a promising and exciting premise at first glance: a brother-sister duo investigate crimes in late 15th century Rome, under the watchful eye of the Borgia pope. As a lover of Renaissance Italy and a good murder mystery, I was immediately drawn to this, especially as it's the first book in a series.
However, I ended up DNF'ing less than 100 pages in. While the concept of the book is incredibly interesting, the execution of it falls flat. Cristina and Domenico are one-dimensional and boring, and make no sense within their setting. Cristina feels like a female and cheaper version of Sherlock Holmes with her cold, intellectual behavior and penchant for deductive reasoning based on little to no actual evidence. Meanwhile, Domenico is supposed to be a young soldier who made a rapid rise in the ranks of the Vatican army but is entirely dependent on his right hand Gilo's legwork and his sister's brains. None of the sidecharacters feel real or believable, even those that are actual historical characters, such as Rodrigo Borgia or Giuliano della Rovere. They seem to be a desperate attempt to make the setting feel more historical than it actually is.
Because the atmosphere in this book is definitely not 15th century Rome. While descriptions are plentiful and get some stuff right, the way the characters behave and move through the setting feels far too modern. The entire story is written as if the author had a basic knowledge of the look of Renaissance Rome, but did little research on the actual lives of the people during this time. The dialogue is far too casual and modern, the behavior of both Domenico and Cristina is utterly unrealistic and the methods they use to solve the mystery at the heart of the story feel plucked out of a Victorian detective novel. Every chapter, it became harder to focus on the actual plot because it was so hard to believe the setting and allow it to transport me into the story.
Speaking of chapters, there are far too many. The ebook stands at about 270 pages and yet there is a total of 62 (!) chapters. That's about 4,5 pages per chapter. While short chapters are fun sometimes and can really push the story forward, the shortness of the chapters in Omens of Death became annoying after the first 50 pages. Nearly every scene became a separate chapter, which kept interrupting the flow of the story and made every scene feel rushed and disconnected from the ones that came before and after.
To summarise: Omens of Death had a lot of potential, but didn't actually do anything with it.
Omens of Death has a promising and exciting premise at first glance: a brother-sister duo investigate crimes in late 15th century Rome, under the watchful eye of the Borgia pope. As a lover of Renaissance Italy and a good murder mystery, I was immediately drawn to this, especially as it's the first book in a series.
However, I ended up DNF'ing less than 100 pages in. While the concept of the book is incredibly interesting, the execution of it falls flat. Cristina and Domenico are one-dimensional and boring, and make no sense within their setting. Cristina feels like a female and cheaper version of Sherlock Holmes with her cold, intellectual behavior and penchant for deductive reasoning based on little to no actual evidence. Meanwhile, Domenico is supposed to be a young soldier who made a rapid rise in the ranks of the Vatican army but is entirely dependent on his right hand Gilo's legwork and his sister's brains. None of the sidecharacters feel real or believable, even those that are actual historical characters, such as Rodrigo Borgia or Giuliano della Rovere. They seem to be a desperate attempt to make the setting feel more historical than it actually is.
Because the atmosphere in this book is definitely not 15th century Rome. While descriptions are plentiful and get some stuff right, the way the characters behave and move through the setting feels far too modern. The entire story is written as if the author had a basic knowledge of the look of Renaissance Rome, but did little research on the actual lives of the people during this time. The dialogue is far too casual and modern, the behavior of both Domenico and Cristina is utterly unrealistic and the methods they use to solve the mystery at the heart of the story feel plucked out of a Victorian detective novel. Every chapter, it became harder to focus on the actual plot because it was so hard to believe the setting and allow it to transport me into the story.
Speaking of chapters, there are far too many. The ebook stands at about 270 pages and yet there is a total of 62 (!) chapters. That's about 4,5 pages per chapter. While short chapters are fun sometimes and can really push the story forward, the shortness of the chapters in Omens of Death became annoying after the first 50 pages. Nearly every scene became a separate chapter, which kept interrupting the flow of the story and made every scene feel rushed and disconnected from the ones that came before and after.
To summarise: Omens of Death had a lot of potential, but didn't actually do anything with it.