Another nice old-fashioned detective story from Ngaio Marsh. This time, it actually happens in New Zealand.
#12 Deborah Challinor: Tamar 3/5
Tamar is a young woman, emigrating from Cornwall to New Zealand in the later half of the 19th century. All her family members are dead, so she is alone. And before she even gets on board the ship, she gets acquainted with a rather strange woman, who is obviously a madame from a brothel. This might sound like a horrible start to a traditional story of a poor naive girl being seduced and taken advantage of, but in fact nothing like that happens. Every seemingly predictable twist of the plot has a rather unexpected result, which made this book a nice read.
However, I did not find Tamar herself interesting. Rather, people around her. I also thought that there were too much details about protagonists' bodily functions. There is a lot of 'farting','pissing','belching'. I am not sure if it adds reality to the story. I found the frequency of these references a bit ridiculous.
It is, in fact, the first part of the trilogy, but I am not sure so far if I will continue with it.