Review: Unnatural Ends by Christopher Huang

Synopsis: Sir Lawrence Linwood is dead. More accurately, he was murdered—savagely beaten to death in his own study with a mediaeval mace. The murder calls home his three adopted children: Alan, an archeologist; Roger, an engineer; and Caroline, a journalist. But his heirs soon find that his last testament contains a strange proviso—that his estate shall go to the heir who solves his murder.

To secure their future, each Linwood heir must now dig into the past. As their suspicion mounts—of each other and of peculiar strangers in the churchless town of Linwood Hollow—they come to suspect that the perpetrator lurks in the mysterious origins of their own birth.

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Not a fan of this one - I found the story too long in the telling, which meant I took much longer to get through this one than I did Huang's previous book.

Set in the 1920s, the main narrative alternates between the three siblings - Alan, Roger and Caroline - and the detective in charge - Detective Inspector Clarence Mowbray.  It also takes the reader back to when the siblings were young (1903) - though for the life of me I could not fathom why this narrative was included as I, personally, found it did not add anything to the story but rather detracted from it instead - maybe I missed something that others have not.

All in all, it is a tale of three children solving the murder of their father - so each narrative goes over the same scenario, except from the point of view of the narrating sibling, until the story merges under that of DI Mowbray.

As mentioned, it was really too long in the telling for me that I lost both momentum and interest. A pity, as Huang's other book - A Gentleman's Murder - was rather good.