msmarques's Full Review: James Wilson - The Dark Clue
When I first picked up The Dark Clue, I was eagerly anticipating it. It is a mystery suspense novel, using two characters from Wilkie Collin's The Woman in White to explore the life of the British painter JMW Turner.
I loved Wilkie Collin's The Woman in White and was looking forward to more adventures by Walter and his sister-in-law Marion.
The first chapter was intriguing. Walter, a drawing instructor and minor artist, was called on to write a biography of the great JMW Turner, for a woman who dreaded the outcome of another biography underway.
The general style of this novel is Victorian in feel, a novel comprised of letters and journal entries from or to the two main characters.
Each individual chapter was interesting, often delving into the underbelly of Victorian society.
The book, however, was unsatisfying as a whole, and I ended up putting it down just over half-way through. There were two main problems for me:
(1) The overall plot was minor. They are investigating an artist and writing his biography. However, there is no dramatic twist after the early discovery that his life is more sinister and complicated than early appearances lead them to believe. I expected drama in the life they were uncovering (beyond individual episodes) and also drama in the life of the two investigators, but found it in neither. Wilkie Collins' books have all sorts of twists and turns, but this book was entirely episodic.
(2) The characters did not ring true to the characters as appearing in The Woman in White. Where is the tenderness and heroism? Not in this book. That could have been excused if there had been more than the most minimal character development.
After I decided to stop reading this book, I skimmed the ending. There does seem to be some sort of overall point to the plot, but it seemed so minor compared with the episodic depravity and promise of the book, that I can't imagine it is worth the effort of slogging through this entire book.
My further criticism is that the book jacket is only a painting reminiscent of JMW Turner. Couldn't they get permission to use an actual JMW Turner painting for the cover? Well, perhaps not for this book.
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