T;LDR: A cozy mystery with a few steampunk touches and light fantasy, Meanwhile at the Dernstrum Institute is a light read.
Meanwhile, at the Dernstrum Institute by Catherine Griffin
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2
A mostly light romp of events told in first person POV by the intrepid heroine, Meanwhile, at the Dernstrum Institute…, is a light and easy read. It falls firmly in the category of a cozy mystery and is great on a Sunday with a cup of tea.
Overall, it is a well-written book, but I did have some issues with the mystery plot reveal and the showdown with the villain at the end, which is why I only give it 3.5 stars.
Plot
It is set in post-WWI England in 1923, where the main character, Constance Wright, seeks a secretarial job after the death of her inventor father. Penniless and desperate, she talks her way into a job at the scientific institute founded by her late godfather, who was also her father’s partner at one point.
She is not a good secretary, but she’s a crackpot at fixing mechanical engines and gadgets. She arrives at the institute with another guest and spends her time trying and failing to type a report while fending off her boss, Dr. Langstone.
With a housekeeper similar to Mrs. Danvers in Daphne Du Marrier’s Rebecca, eccentric inventors playing with rabid seaweed and walking war machines, and random gruesome deaths of the local wildlife, Constance has her hands full.
But wait, there’s more! There’s also a trail of clues her godfather left her to a treasure that remains unnamed. If she can figure it out, she can give up the typewriter forever and manage her own fortune.
T;LDR: A young woman needing work talks her way into a secretarial job at an institute founded by her late godfather. Fighting off rabid cabbages, walking war machines, and her odd and ill boss, she discovers a trail of clues to what could be her fortune, but only if she gets there first.
What I Liked
I liked the heroine. She is plucky, smart, and determined to do what she can to make her way in the world. She has a mechanical mind and is able to fix engines and other machines quite easily, but the typewriter alludes her. This is one of her flaws, which is endearing.
I also like that she makes a plan and sticks to it, rather than waffling around not making decisions or allowing life to overwhelm her. Overall, she’s a strong voice in the book.
The other characters are also strongly present – there are no cardboard characters in the book. They all have their own personalities and foibles, which the author did a great job presenting to the reader.
I really loved the deadly cabbages. I mean, it’s cabbage and yet, it’s worse than Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors when it gets going.
Mrs. Jones, the housekeeper, is also a great character. There were numerous places where I wanted Constance to slap her down, especially when she got all high and mighty or threw her weight around. For an author to write a character I actively wanted to see something bad happen to says a lot about the power of the words used and the dialogue used to show her to the reader.
What I didn’t Like
The mystery started out promising enough and Constance threw herself into deciphering the notes left behind by the Professor. But, and it’s a big but, I absolutely did not enjoy the superficial way in which the author progressed the plot. She made an intelligent character look completely stupid, the neon signs of red herrings and focus here, focus here that the character completely missed, were so bright that I almost threw my phone at the wall.
Don’t do that. Write something more subtle. Take the time to build out that section of the book so that you’re not dumbing down your awesome heroine to fit into the structure of the mystery.
The other thing I absolutely did not enjoy was the villain flip flopping at the end of the book from one extreme to the other. There was no reason for it, no build up to show he was completely batty, so why did you only take a few paragraphs for him to go from “work with me” to “I have to kill you and your friend too”?!
Please do don’t that either. There are ways to build up the instability or tackle the need to kill the heroine in a more realistic way (realistic for fiction anyway). It left me wondering if the book was much longer and when the author killed their darlings, too many were brutally murdered, leaving the villain one dimensional.
To Sum Up (too late!)
Overall, this is a fun book. It’s something to read when you are looking for an escape that doesn’t require heavy thinking. I know I just ripped it apart a little, but it didn’t end up on my DNF pile because I did enjoy it. It was entertaining, I just didn’t like a few of the sections of the book enough to rate it higher than 3.5.
About the Author
There is no bio available anywhere for this author, so I have no information to give you besides the link to her Goodreads page, where all her books reside. It is here.
You can find my truncated, but similar, Goodreads review here.
If you wish to purchase this book, pick your vendor of choice here, or just cave to the man and get it from Amazon here.