Semper Magis: REVIEW: A Commonplace Killing, by Siân Busby

Tuesday, 28 July 2015

REVIEW: A Commonplace Killing, by Siân Busby

This review, I must say, I've been very excited to post. It's quite a different novel from anything I've read before.

About the Book

This book is quite different for a number of reasons: 1) It is more of an adult book, or at least so that I would not recommend it for any younger teens or tweens who are not allowed to read books with swearing or implications of a suggestive nature and 2) This is a transcription of the work of a deceased author. I mean, I've read books by deceased authors, of course. But I do not recall many transcriptions of work. Certainly I don't believe I've read any works published after the death of the author. A portion of the proceeds in buying the book goes to a cancer charity; unfortunately Siân Busby died of lung cancer.

My Review

I really did enjoy this book, for all of its rather mature vibes. It's one of those books that I really appreciate for the way it was written and not necessarily the story, though I did love the story here. I think that the Express nailed it when the described it as 'a classic whodunit at its very best', because it was. It was a classic murder mystery, but at the same time it was so much more than that.

If you were to ask people about a time they would call civilised, a lot of people would probably say post-war Britain. 'Fraid not in Busby's post-war Britain. She strips the covering of civility and respectability of 1946 Britain and shows us the reality of the society that existed underneath it all, and the inner thoughts of those in it. She did a fantastic job of showing everyone what the communities were like, and the dark truth. World War II had not been won, even after the last bullet had been fired.

Busby's writing was so classic, so eloquent, and so painfully resonant it was impossible to put the book down. I think that, though it was her last ever work, Busby had created a masterpiece that was rightfully shared with the world.

I loved it; it was, by rights, an amazing book. She delved deep into everything she wrote about, convincingly detailing the lives of her 1946 characters in such a way that you get drawn into believing they were real people who lived in that time. She reveals that life was not even close to the joyful peacetime it is perceived as in the most hard-hitting way possible.

I really did love this book, and I hope that this quick-fire review was good enough to convince you that this novel really does deserve:

Now, one of the things that people asked is that I include books that I think that you'll enjoy if you enjoyed this book. So here goes (click on the images to visit the page on Goodreads):

Books by this Author That You'll Like...