Miniskirts are Murder

by Des Burkinshaw

3 out of 5 

Synopsis

Porter Norton, his friends and his sarcastic spirit guide, The Gliss, are on the trail of a young actress who went missing in Soho, London, in the Swinging Sixties. Still recovering from their last adventure in the battlefields of WW1, the gang are confronted by a transatlantic conspiracy.

Review

Porter and his friends have their next case - a young girl who went missing in the sixties, which is just the tip of the iceburg.

I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book in the Porter & The Gliss series, but the first book I've read. I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a stand-alone, but it explains everything nicely, and I didn't feel at a loss for not having read the first book.

Porter Norton is a solicitor-turned-detective. This is a new development, he can sense the dead if they had emotional or physical pain; and he has a floating head of a sidekick, The Glitch.

Karin is a famous British presenter of historical programmes and investigative pieces. She is still recovering from their last case, but she's not letting that slow her down.

Feng is an ex-City rich boy, who likes to spar with the others, and provide sarcastic narration.

Namita is a lawyer, who is starting her own company. Struggling to find work, she jumps at the chance to look further into a contested will and missing family.

Even though it's his series, Porter takes a bit of a back seat; and Feng just goes along for the ride.

I thought that Karin and Namita were the real driving forces of this book. Karin uses her work making award-winning programmes to take the team to investigate missing girls in London and LA.

Namita's early actions set this whole case in motion. Later in the book she follows the group's suggestions, but still gets a lot of the spotlight, and I found her story very interesting.

This is definitely a plot-driven book, and I found the central story intriguing. I was hooked and wanted to find out the truth, as the team uncovered hints about Rose (the missing girl). Starting with the fact that the poor, struggling wannabe actress manages to fly all over America and Europe. In the wake of the Cold War, no speculation is too wild.

The not-so-good.

This felt like a long book. At one point I was really getting into it, and I thought I must have been flying through, but when I checked my kindle, I was surprised I was only at 30%.

It felt like there was a lot crammed into this book. Some parts helped build towards the central plot; others helped cast red herrings; but there were lots of padding.

The author is a journalist, and I could tell. The facts, the scandal, the sections on #MeToo - these were the strongest parts, and the author has a real talent for weaving together short pieces that would make riveting articles.

In contrast, I found the weakest parts were the interactions and developments by our main team. Despite being a very diverse group on paper, I thought they came across as very samey in practice.

Their interactions were often awkward (awkward narration, not socially-awkward).

I found these social sections were often littered with quite intense conversations about serious topics. I was impressed that the author was handling such issues as racism and sexual abuse head on, but the discussions didn't feel natural. They were just blocked in to show that X is forward-thinking, and Y is an intelligent person who understands the topic thoroughly.

Overall, despite some flaws, I still found this a riveting read, and I'm intrigued at what has happened in Dead & Talking.

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