Posted: November 15, 2021
The Lovely Wicked Rain
A benefit of this book being the third in the series and me reading the previous two is that when I begin reading I'm greeted by old friends. Gage, Alex, Percy, and Zoe all come out early in the story making me feel like I'm coming home to a familiar place. Only Carmen is missing but Karen from the second book takes her place. And, of course, the place itself, Barnacle Bluffs, Oregon, is welcomingly familiar. Instead of the brooding, steel-sky weather of the previous books Carter treats us to biblical level rains in this book. Barnacle Bluffs is a character under Carter's authorship and is one of the main reason I keep coming back to the series. I actually like the old name of the series "Oregon Coast Mysteries" rather then the current "Garrison Gage Mysteries".
I'm slightly disappointed that Books and Oddities is not featured in this series as much as in the first two books. Alex is preoccupied here and could only give minimal support to solving the mystery. And what a mystery it is. Of all the books this is the one that effectively leverages the unknown nature of what is going on behind the murder. Carter writes this with a level of suspense and tension that simply was not in the previous books; it has made "The Lovely Wicked Rain" into a page-turning read.
Looking at the mystery itself and the lack of cooperation from Jeremiah and much everyone else one would think that Gage is going nowhere with this. The lesson here is that persistence pays off. Gage simply refuses to give up on the case.
Speaking of lessons, a lesson in this book involves how to handle guilt. This is tied in what has happened to Gage previously and what is happening to Karen Pantelli now. It is an amazing coincidence that just as I was reading those sections about how to handle guilt something in my personal life was brought to my attention that made me feel guilty. This book and its message about handling guilt immediately became useful to me at that moment. Very thankful for that.
I'm also very appreciative that, in this book, I get to see Percy Quinn - who I always liked - work side-by-side with Gage. I really enjoyed these two supporting each other rather than trading quips, or coming to blows like in the first book.
This book contains the best sex scene in the series so far - Karen and Garrison in the Inn at Sapphire head trying to solve the Mystery of the Falling Towel - you'll know it when you read it.
The one thing I did not like in this book was the mystery reveal. Not the reveal of the murderer but the reveal of the backstory surrounding the murder. The implausibility of this backstory reminds me of the flawed reveal in book one. This is definitely the part that Carter is having trouble with in this series so far. That said, even though the destination was wanting, the way Carter worked up the suspense reading to the reveal was very engaging.
I just came to the realization that this book went by so fast because it was more smoothly written than the previous books. Carter's writing, already very good, is acquiring a good flow as one sentence naturally melds into the next.