Review: The Sunday Table by Lila Blake

The Sunday table (The Telegraph Hill Mysteries #0.5)
by Lila Blake

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Cozy Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: no romance

Blurb:
A complete Telegraph Hill Mystery prequel novella

Before the body on the Filbert Steps, there was the missing money that taught Vivian Salvatore how to look.

Newly separated and newly retired, Vivian has returned to North Beach hoping to disappear into a quiet apartment, a stalled book project, and solitary mornings at Coppa’s. But the neighborhood has other plans for her.

When four thousand dollars raised for an ailing neighbor vanishes from a church safe, suspicion immediately falls on Gino Sabella, a young man with a record, a missing half hour, and a community already prepared to believe the worst of him.

Vivian spent twenty-seven years teaching teenagers, and she knows how easily a convincing story can form around the person nobody wants to defend. At the urging of the formidable Maria Vitale, she begins asking questions. But in a neighborhood where nearly everyone has access to the money, and everyone has an opinion. Finding the truth may require Vivian to confront her own assumptions as well as everyone else’s.

The Sunday Table is a warm, atmospheric prequel to The Filbert Steps, featuring found family, old loyalties, strong coffee, and the mystery that first earned Vivian a place at Maria’s table.

My Review

I saw the first book in this series on Netgalley and wasn’t sure whether I wanted to request it or not. I visited the author’s website and then saw this free prequel novella and decided to read that one first.

The Sunday Table is a short prequel novella introducing the main character, the setting and having a complete mystery. In this case the mystery focusses on someone stealing money that got donated to the church for a old lady needing help paying her doctor’s bills. There are some clear suspects and Vivian is asked to investigate by her new friend Maria, so she does. Slowly a more complete picture emerges. I thought the mystery was quite well done, it didn’t quite hook me at first, but as it progressed I felt myself more curious about who had done it. The reveal was well done and made sense, although it is one of those mysteries that tough to piece together yourself as the reader. As this is a very short read there aren’t as many twists and it plays out pretty quickly, but I still liked how there were a few twists and reveals.

While the mystery was a solid one, I did feel that this prequel was too short to really get a feel for the characters or maybe that is the way book 1 will be as well? I don’t know. Anyway I really struggled getting a good feel for the main character, who she is and why she’s doing this except for the fact that someone asked her to dot his. She just seemed like the point of view for the mystery unfolded, but I like my cozies a bit more character focused. Maybe book 1 will have more focus on the characters and this is just because it’s a prequel, that is possible. I also thought the writing felt a bit dry? It was very focussed on the mystery and why did what and said what, but the setting and characters don’t really come alive.

To summarize: The writing style didn’t really work for me, but the mystery was a solid one and I liked seeing it play out. This is a pretty short prequel novella and it’s hard to know whether the tone here is the same as in book 1 or not. The book felt very focussed on the mystery, which was a good one, but I felt the setting and characters didn’t really come alive. The mystery kept me invested, but the writing made it hard to fully care about the characters.

Links:
– Bookfunnel