Extra Book 5: The Haunting of Torre Abbey



So here’s another extra book I read for the category “Book set in an Abbey, Cloister, etc.”
Snort!
I found this title at work, which conveniently is the library. I was desperate for a story for the category as I did not wish to listen to fifty-four hours of The Mists of Avalon. The Redwall audio ended up being a group performance of the work, rather than one person reading it. I was worried I’d lose some of the tale if I didn’t get a “full” version. The catalog thankfully directed me several books with an abbey as the setting. Once I had the print version of Redwall, I sent back the other books. Except for this one.
I’m a Sherlock junkie. I love the old books and the new show with Mr. Cumberbatch. (I could watch him read the dictionary and be entertained.) The Complete Sherlock Holmes Vol. 1 took me years to read, and I loved it. Volume Two is in the wings for someday.  I love the logic, the puzzles, the characterization. But I have been hesitant to read retellings after getting my hands on Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz. I still have the burn marks from that one.
I started the book after I committed to Redwall and discovered it was a great story. The author is very true to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s style. It sounds like a read “Holmes” book. (I don’t mean that in any derogatory way.) The tale was absolutely Victorian. The tone, the settings (exactly like The Hound of the Baskerville), the characters were perfect. Needless to say, I finished the book.
The tale drops us in Devon, at an old abbey u’s Holmes so the answer will never be supernatural. I love that.
sed as a family home. There are ghost stories of the past haunting the place, a headless monk, a demon hunter on a black horse, and people with mysterious pasts. What more can you ask for? And it
The story is told by Dr. Watson as per usual in his humanistic way. Mr. Conan Doyle was brilliant to allow the doctor with the big heart to tell the tales of such a stoic man. Ms. Bugge did the same in her book. Watson is everyman and easy to relate to, but it’s his insight into the real Holmes that makes the stories come to life.
I had only one small problem with the book (besides a few dangling participles). I won’t spoil, but the killer went beyond what was necessary. One death threw the book into a more “despicable villain” category. The murder was shocking and unnecessary. But it was presenting very Victorian, and they dismissed it rather than get into the heart of it. But that was the only thing.
I really enjoyed the book and will sign off the 2019 Blog with it.
I give The Haunting of Torre Abbey by Carole Bugge Five tobacco pipes.

Stay tuned for my 2020 PopSugar Reading blog. (Yes, I already started reading the books…)

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