A Review of The Bequest by Joanna Margaret

Based on the description, I wanted to love this book. I did not, but enjoyed reading it nonetheless. It has a lot going for it - great settings in Scotland, Italy, and France, and lovely world building. The author clearly knows academia and archives quite well. The mystery, centering on an elusive emerald buried in a secret family archive, is intriguing, and the resolve clever enough to make the book worth reading. The murder side of the mystery was initially interesting with a somewhat clunky resolve, but compelling enough. Unfortunately, the protagonist was very distracting. I found her to be unlikeable, irritating, and annoyingly stupid for someone purported to be a brilliant graduate student who eminent scholars are panting to collaborate with. I suppose the story must be pretty good, as my desire to find out whodunnit outweighed my distaste for the main character. Worth reading if, like me, you love archives.

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