A tasty tale
- The Grass Widow by Vanessa Edwards
This is an engaging, enjoyable, and perfectly pitched addition to the cozy murder mystery genre. The story is told from several viewpoints and it’s a complex and accomplished piece of writing because of the handling of these multiple narrators – I appreciate the work involved in crafting this and doing it well. The writing is of a high standard, with a smooth execution, confident use of language, and some beautiful descriptive passages – often focussed on colour, food, weather… The author brings a touch of the poetic to her prose with creative word pairings. The main characters are well developed and credible, with the author’s characters representing women and men ‘of a certain age’ in a refreshingly non-stereotypical light – world-building is good too. All of this makes for an impressive and enjoyable read and I was impressed enough to recommend The Grass Widow to my partner who also bought and enjoyed the book.
For the first half, the story builds well as the main characters are developed, and the plot simmers along very nicely. Past the halfway mark, the plot quickly accelerates and the book becomes highly engaging – reading when I should have been sleeping, kind of engaging. Finally, the action is concluded with a wholly enjoyable breeziness – and the last line is a gem.
I’ve never read a book without having at least some criticism, so here goes. A little too much exposition loses the pace and feels a bit awkward. Retelling information already known to the reader, for another character’s benefit – this unnecessary repetition became annoying. The main characters are fully formed but the lesser characters feel thinner, less convincing, and motivations feel a little constructed as a result. The denouement sidelines the more interesting characters for time with the lesser players, which disappointed me – also there was too much white wine here, and it became a little tiring. That’s all. The Grass Widow has been carefully crafted, writing it has clearly been a labour of love – and hard work – which has for the most part paid off. Overall for this reader, it very nearly but not quite, hits the spot.
About the Author
Vanessa Edwards. Photo credit: Nick Gregan
Vanessa is a lawyer and translator specialising in EU law who has worked in private practice in London and Brussels and for the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. After taking early retirement from the legal profession she turned her hand to fiction. Her debut novel The Grass Widow (under its original title Some Like It Cold) was long-listed for the Bath Novel Award and short-listed for the Impress Prize for New Writers and the Retreat West Novel Prize. She lives in Hampstead and likes wine, walking and music of many sorts. And of course reading and writing.