I just finished reading A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Remark by Harry Connolly.
This was an odd one. Kind of a cozy mystery, that subgenre of little old ladies investigating crimes, but with way more blood and violence than I was expecting after reading through the first few chapters. I honestly wasn’t sure what to make of this book at first, and after finishing it I’m still not quite sure what I think of it. On the one hand, the main character kind of annoyed me, until I got used to her personality; on the other hand, the story itself was quite good, and the central mystery was suitably twisty.
Looking back on the book, having finished reading it, I think this was an attempt at a pacifist, cozy mystery written by someone with way more experience writing pulp violence. Which honestly was kind of fun! The intrusion of armed gunmen on a little old witch puttering around Seattle with her nephew was unexpected and interesting, and I have to say again I really liked the story itself. I don’t know if I want to read more of Connolly’s urban fantasy right now, though–I definitely enjoyed his pure fantasy One Man a lot more.