This Side Of Murder (Verity Kent #1) by Anna Lee Huber Review...

Hi ForeverBookers, 

I've just finished This Side Of Murder by Anna Lee Hubert and it was great! This isn't my normal type of read but I still enjoyed it. 

NetGalley allowed me access to This Side Of Murder so thanks to them for letting me read and review it.

This Side Of Murder tells the story of widower, Verity. She's going to a house party on an island near England. This story is really about Verity trying to figure out a code as she was a secret code breaker in the war. Verity lost her husband in the War, or so she thinks...

4 Stars

The book is set just after World War 1 so there are some customs that are different to now, smoking being seen as a good or relaxing thing, for example. 

Verity meets another attendee of the party, Max on the way there. They strike up a friendship. The other attendees are rather hostile to Verity. The other women treat her terribly and the other men just seem to ignore her. 

This is a mystery novel where we're trying to work out lots of things. I don't really want to write more because I think it's a lot more shocking if you go into this book blind.

I'm using this for 2 squares of the Boo!kish Bingo on the Life And Lit group on Facebook. The book with a murder and book with a stalker squares. The murder is pretty obvious with as the title has the word Murder in it, and there's what I'd call a stalker in it too, various stalkers, actually. 

What did I like about This Side Of Murder? 

I liked how I was always guessing with this book. Nothing seemed simple. 

I liked how the narrative is written in first person. I think this made the story seem more realistic.

I liked how I was never quite sure what was going on and the surprises that seemed to pop out of nowhere!

I liked how Verity, the main character was always questioning everything. She never just said "that's that". There was thought behind all of her movements.

What didn't I like about This Side Of Murder? 

Some bits of this novel are slow but then some bits are fast, too fast I'd say, so the pacing is a little off in my opinion. 

I didn't like how the romance between 2 characters didn't seem to happen. It might happen in future books! I can only hope! 

I read this book for 2 spots on the Boo!kish Bingo sheet that the group, Life And Lit have done on Facebook. I read it for the Murder square because the title states there is a murder and for the Stalker square too because there's a stalker involved as well, who's trying to figure out secrets, as well as the murderer who becomes a stalker like character.

I'm giving This Side Of Murder 4 Stars because it pleasantly surprised me. When I requested this on NetGalley, I was unsure of just what I would be reading. I wanted to try something different to my preferred genre of romance. It's the perfect time to read this as well, what with it being Halloween soon. I liked how the story was historical but not overdone in the details. I'm looking forward to the next Verity Kent novel.

Will you be reading this mystery read? 

Look for my next review coming soon...