Mystery: Blue Rose Trilogy, Book 2

If you like Straub you will enjoy this book and want to read the other two books in this trilogy.

The book's beginning is very exciting a young boy is hit by a car. this changes his path in life, it fails to come up to its ability, in a way, by following the life of the boy, now 17 years old, as an upper middle class (I'd say rich) and entitled kid to whom very little happens, but how happens to have an interesting father "The Shadow" a famous amateur crime-solver. The entire middle of the book becomes a bit slow, the kid meets a girl he wants but must fight even more entitled people for her-- often relegating the main plot (a murder) to a far corner, but ends in a satisfactory way. I have to say that "Mystery is no Koko. The main problem is that KOKO has several sub-plots and is very "busy" but "Mystery" has only one story so that slows it down a lot. Straub had the ability to create more interesting sub-plots, like going back in time to the original Blue Rose murders and so on, but he does not do that, and so the story ends up the story of a boy, girl, and his father. Not really as interesting as all that. However, I read it, and hope that "The Throat" is a bit faster.

Peter Straub has yet to disappoint me. From surf to turf, the locales were described in sympathetic detail. The story was very convoluted and the fatal flaw in a man's character was left understated; thankfully. An adventure not so pure nor so simple. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

What a great book! Twists and turn galore, interesting characters (both good and evil), masterful plotting. Mystery is the 2nd book in Straub's "Blue Rose Trilogy". The 1st is "Koko", the 3rd is "The Throat". I tried to read "Koko" years ago, but it really plodded along and the plot was overly complex and confusing. Just couldn't get into it. Mystery is amazing as a stand-alone novel. Starts strong and then takes you along for a great ride. The mystery in this book is a fascinating and disturbing whopper. Don't let the fact that it's a bit dated dissuade you. Actually made it more interesting for me. Different place, different time. Straub's one of my favorite authors and I think this is one of his best. Going to give "The Throat" a try now..

Book has lots of charcters that i really didn.t care about. Several murder mysteries are solved by end of book. Many mini subplots revolve around the super rich and the power they exert on a tiny Caribbean island and resort town.Plot is confusing at times as characters pop into and out of storyline. Thank goodness for Kindle - I could look up names and figure out who they were. I figured out who the ultimate bad guy was really early in the book. So " the big reveal" was a let down for me. Mostly I was bored. Since i bought book i was determined to finish.i won.t read third book in series.

Good parts, but overall too talky and too much time spent with events not relevent to the "mystery" of the title. Tom, in the opening chapters, gets hit with a car running away from a threat and ends up in a hospital. There is a suggestion that his accident has changed him in a good manner, i.e., given him a kind of other-worldly power to "see" things...but this suggestion just goes away. Tom is essentially just another young guy who meets "The Shadow" a formerly famous detective. The two work on this years-old mystery which just isn't, in the end, all that compelling. I enjoyed Koko (Book one of this trilogy) but this was not as enjoyable because it didn't grab me. I also don't see it as a sequel to Koko. Perhaps the Blue Rose trilogy should be a Blue Rose duet. This doesn't seem to fit in at all.

I admire Straub's writing and intelligence, or I never would have finished this book. I have to agree with some few other reviewers that this book promised paranormal elements, then went into whole different directions, would insert another paranormal-tinged scene, only to veer off again with more and more characters. His descriptions were excellent, but it was as if he didn't have his mind fully on what he was writing. Still, I'd buy and read his other works.

Superb! Peter Straub is a master of masters! Unreal prose, extraordinary characterization and layer upon layer of sublime narrative. Exceptional! Truly exceptional.

Great book