21 November 2018

Review: Bernice Summerfield: The Weather On Versimmon by Matthew Griffiths

Hardcover, 219 pages
Published 2012
Acquired August 2015
Read November 2018
Bernice Summerfield: The Weather On Versimmon
by Matthew Griffiths

The first Bernice Summerfield novel for five years, this takes place between episodes of the box set Road Trip; in fact, it's the first adventure Benny and new companion Ruth have on their "road trip" from Lyndiaz to Legion. Given that, it's a bit disappointing, but that would be true regardless. The book begins in medias res, with Benny and Ruth split up and on opposite sides, which is fine, I love me a bit of medias res, but the book maintains the sense of confusion for far too long, to the extent that I never really got what was at stake. Mostly it seemed like Benny was just kind of running around in circles, and meanwhile a minster was doing a thing, and also there was an archive. The explanations all seemed to arrive in the last fifteen pages, which was way too late! By that time I had completely checked out of whatever was going on. A disappointing return of Bernice to the medium that originally gave birth to her.

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