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"Another One Bites the Crust"
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“Meorrw?”
Between managing her cozy tearoom, worrying about her cat, and stressing out over meeting her boyfriend’s mother, Gemma Rose incidentally stumbles upon the corpse of a celebrity chef during a ball at Oxford University. Rumors of foul play quickly become the talk of the tearoom, which gets Gemma caught up in the old biddies’ meddling, despite her detective boyfriend’s ongoing investigation. “Another One Bites the Crust”…er...dust…but this time it hits a little too close for comfort.
Between managing her cozy tearoom, worrying about her cat, and stressing out over meeting her boyfriend’s mother, Gemma Rose incidentally stumbles upon the corpse of a celebrity chef during a ball at Oxford University. Rumors of foul play quickly become the talk of the tearoom, which gets Gemma caught up in the old biddies’ meddling, despite her detective boyfriend’s ongoing investigation. “Another One Bites the Crust”…er...dust…but this time it hits a little too close for comfort.
Readability
Every scene serves the story in several ways simultaneously, and it creates an immersive sense of seamless progression throughout the novel. You’re getting the gradual formation of character arcs and storylines while the primary plot is moving and the sub-plots are developing, ALL AT THE SAME TIME. The one drawback is the frequent use of recaps in the plot as a means of reviewing everything that has transpired, whenever a new lead arises. I suppose reiterating information is common for the mystery genre, and especially for one that is narrated in first-person, but it feels a bit excessive throughout this novel.
Sometimes I like to share an uncommon word that I discovered in the prose, and the term niggling stuck out like a sore thumb to me, which is a verb from the root word niggle.
Niggle
/ˈniɡ(ə)l/
Verb
- cause slight but persistent annoyance, discomfort, or anxiety
“I’m telling you right now… if you’re here to niggle, or be an accessory to unnecessary niggling, then there will be consequences.”
Noun
- a trifling complaint, dispute, or criticism
“Ma’am, I advise you to take that niggle and you bring it to the attention of customer service, because they’re the ones who can take care of that for you.”
Creativity
This novel makes great use of support characters. Not only do the side characters have their own interests and motivations, but the author also shows how they have an influence upon the Gemma’s character. Whether channeling Mabel’s mannerisms to get out of a jam, or “hissing” like her mother when voicing her concerns, it’s plain to see that Gemma has an intimate connection with these other characters. The first example is spelled out but hissing is used without explanation – like a fun little clue embedded in the details for the attentive reader to appreciate.
The author makes use of many historic landmarks and locales throughout the novel. The story takes place in Oxford (England), and aside from Gemma’s tearoom which basically serves as a reset location for the mc & reader to review certain plot points, the author takes advantage of the historically rich setting, by not only spreading the events of the novel across various locales, but doing so as an opportunity to feed the reader some fun-size factoids.
This is an example of when fiction is more than just entertainment, and can inspire people to learn on their own accord. Fiction can make learning fun. For me, this is a way that fiction can promote and inspire education by way of independent study, without feeling as though I’m pressured to do so. When an author crafts a story around real world settings, or includes some interesting curiosity without providing the reader an entire lecture in the form of exposition, then it may coax the reader to seek further information on their own time. I’ll tell you right now, whenever I’m compelled to research something on my own time, I’m way more likely to be enthralled by whatever it is I discover on the subject.
Delivery
This novel DOESN’T contain any of that crap that just reeks of amateur writing, like: “Oh! Here’s the chapter that focuses strictly on characterization. Oop! There goes the chapter that does nothing but deliver one specific plot point the author probably forgot to work into the story so they squeezed it in most likely while they were making revisions. Let’s also not forget about everyone’s favorite type of chapter – the one that sidetracks the primary narrative just to shoehorn some backstory and/or develop that subplot nobody actually cares about, because the pretentious author was incapable of killing their darlings.” If you’re like me, and you read a lot of indie fiction (not to mention my editorials about indie books), then you know what I’m talking about.
For a novel categorized under the “cozy” subgenre Hanna sure does have a way of putting the protagonist in some real uncomfortable situations. Most notably I’d like to point out the scenes involving Keeley, who is the mother of Gemma’s boyfriend (Devlin). Gemma’s character is caring to a fault and Keeley’s character is quite careless, so what seems like good deeds done by Gemma really looks like enabling from the reader’s perspective, which could be cause for resentment down the line by either Devlin or Gemma. Gemma covers for Devlin’s mom when she calls Gemma piss-drunk at a nightclub. Gemma also covers for Keeley when her own mother accidentally finds a roach (leftover marijuana cig) during a tea party she hosted for them. I still don’t understand how Keeley didn’t notice Gemma’s mother and friends pondering over the odorous oddity. As funny as that scene was, I thought it was also unfortunate that Gemma explained the joke out loud in the very next chapter as she repeated the events to her friend Cassie.
Maybe it’s a preference, but perhaps the cozy aspect comes from the feeling of living vicariously through these characters, as if you’re a part of the group. If you experienced the secondhand embarrassment of the family tea party, then perhaps you too would be excited to spill the tea to your best friend just so you could hear their reaction. For me, it caused the joke to overstay its welcome, because it didn’t serve the story to rehash (pun intended) that event. There were other genuinely funny moments in the story, like when Gemma is caught red-handed holding a suspect’s underpants, but the whole situation is misinterpreted and much to her chagrin Gemma has to play coy.
The tone of the story slides into silly territory at times, but it never gets too far-fetched to the point that it feels as though it isn’t somewhat grounded in reality. Some of the themes deal with sensitive subjects surrounding motherhood, including miscarriage, but they aren’t handled with a heavy hand. I would also like to add that even though I saw the outcome from a mile away, the author still had a way with her words that made for a touching resolution in regard to the feral tomcat subplot.
Every scene serves the story in several ways simultaneously, and it creates an immersive sense of seamless progression throughout the novel. You’re getting the gradual formation of character arcs and storylines while the primary plot is moving and the sub-plots are developing, ALL AT THE SAME TIME. The one drawback is the frequent use of recaps in the plot as a means of reviewing everything that has transpired, whenever a new lead arises. I suppose reiterating information is common for the mystery genre, and especially for one that is narrated in first-person, but it feels a bit excessive throughout this novel.
Sometimes I like to share an uncommon word that I discovered in the prose, and the term niggling stuck out like a sore thumb to me, which is a verb from the root word niggle.
Niggle
/ˈniɡ(ə)l/
Verb
- cause slight but persistent annoyance, discomfort, or anxiety
“I’m telling you right now… if you’re here to niggle, or be an accessory to unnecessary niggling, then there will be consequences.”
Noun
- a trifling complaint, dispute, or criticism
“Ma’am, I advise you to take that niggle and you bring it to the attention of customer service, because they’re the ones who can take care of that for you.”
Creativity
This novel makes great use of support characters. Not only do the side characters have their own interests and motivations, but the author also shows how they have an influence upon the Gemma’s character. Whether channeling Mabel’s mannerisms to get out of a jam, or “hissing” like her mother when voicing her concerns, it’s plain to see that Gemma has an intimate connection with these other characters. The first example is spelled out but hissing is used without explanation – like a fun little clue embedded in the details for the attentive reader to appreciate.
The author makes use of many historic landmarks and locales throughout the novel. The story takes place in Oxford (England), and aside from Gemma’s tearoom which basically serves as a reset location for the mc & reader to review certain plot points, the author takes advantage of the historically rich setting, by not only spreading the events of the novel across various locales, but doing so as an opportunity to feed the reader some fun-size factoids.
This is an example of when fiction is more than just entertainment, and can inspire people to learn on their own accord. Fiction can make learning fun. For me, this is a way that fiction can promote and inspire education by way of independent study, without feeling as though I’m pressured to do so. When an author crafts a story around real world settings, or includes some interesting curiosity without providing the reader an entire lecture in the form of exposition, then it may coax the reader to seek further information on their own time. I’ll tell you right now, whenever I’m compelled to research something on my own time, I’m way more likely to be enthralled by whatever it is I discover on the subject.
Delivery
This novel DOESN’T contain any of that crap that just reeks of amateur writing, like: “Oh! Here’s the chapter that focuses strictly on characterization. Oop! There goes the chapter that does nothing but deliver one specific plot point the author probably forgot to work into the story so they squeezed it in most likely while they were making revisions. Let’s also not forget about everyone’s favorite type of chapter – the one that sidetracks the primary narrative just to shoehorn some backstory and/or develop that subplot nobody actually cares about, because the pretentious author was incapable of killing their darlings.” If you’re like me, and you read a lot of indie fiction (not to mention my editorials about indie books), then you know what I’m talking about.
For a novel categorized under the “cozy” subgenre Hanna sure does have a way of putting the protagonist in some real uncomfortable situations. Most notably I’d like to point out the scenes involving Keeley, who is the mother of Gemma’s boyfriend (Devlin). Gemma’s character is caring to a fault and Keeley’s character is quite careless, so what seems like good deeds done by Gemma really looks like enabling from the reader’s perspective, which could be cause for resentment down the line by either Devlin or Gemma. Gemma covers for Devlin’s mom when she calls Gemma piss-drunk at a nightclub. Gemma also covers for Keeley when her own mother accidentally finds a roach (leftover marijuana cig) during a tea party she hosted for them. I still don’t understand how Keeley didn’t notice Gemma’s mother and friends pondering over the odorous oddity. As funny as that scene was, I thought it was also unfortunate that Gemma explained the joke out loud in the very next chapter as she repeated the events to her friend Cassie.
Maybe it’s a preference, but perhaps the cozy aspect comes from the feeling of living vicariously through these characters, as if you’re a part of the group. If you experienced the secondhand embarrassment of the family tea party, then perhaps you too would be excited to spill the tea to your best friend just so you could hear their reaction. For me, it caused the joke to overstay its welcome, because it didn’t serve the story to rehash (pun intended) that event. There were other genuinely funny moments in the story, like when Gemma is caught red-handed holding a suspect’s underpants, but the whole situation is misinterpreted and much to her chagrin Gemma has to play coy.
The tone of the story slides into silly territory at times, but it never gets too far-fetched to the point that it feels as though it isn’t somewhat grounded in reality. Some of the themes deal with sensitive subjects surrounding motherhood, including miscarriage, but they aren’t handled with a heavy hand. I would also like to add that even though I saw the outcome from a mile away, the author still had a way with her words that made for a touching resolution in regard to the feral tomcat subplot.
#LFLR Indie Rating: 8/10
I definitely recommend “Another One Bites the Crust” and The Oxford Tearoom Mystery series. Not only does the author show a great deal of knowledge, expertise, and craftsmanship in her storytelling, but the books from this series can be read in any order. This book in particular was so close to being my first five-star indie read, but I’m confident that if I were to read more books from this series then at least one of them could be. H.Y. Hanna has discovered her own special recipe for success as a self-published author, and she’s cooked up more than six baker’s dozen worth of pun-scrumptious titles for the cozy mystery sub-genre.
I definitely recommend “Another One Bites the Crust” and The Oxford Tearoom Mystery series. Not only does the author show a great deal of knowledge, expertise, and craftsmanship in her storytelling, but the books from this series can be read in any order. This book in particular was so close to being my first five-star indie read, but I’m confident that if I were to read more books from this series then at least one of them could be. H.Y. Hanna has discovered her own special recipe for success as a self-published author, and she’s cooked up more than six baker’s dozen worth of pun-scrumptious titles for the cozy mystery sub-genre.
THIS BREAKDOWN IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE #LFLR NETWORK.
