Methods of Dyeing Review

Author: B. Mure
Series: Ismyre #4
Genre: Murder Mystery
No. of pages: 92
Dates read: 30.11.21
Star Rating: 2.75 stars

Plot: In Ismyre, on the eve of his lecture, the renowned botanist and master dyer Professor Detlef is found dead in the university gardens. As the local constabulary begin their search for the culprit, a strange detective arrives from outside the city to help solve the crime. In a place where things are never as they seem, will Mary the university custodian be able to help the mysterious investigator uncover the truth?

So, I randomly picked up this book not that long ago as I wanted a short story that I could review as the two books I’m reading at the minute are just too long and I wasn’t going to finish them in time. I was drawn in initially by the beautiful artwork. This book is set in a world in which animals act like humans and all the events take place in a country called Ismyre. There are 3 other books in this series, but are unconnected in terms of story, these books are meant to all be small looks into the lives of people from the country which I loved the idea of.

Starting off with the art-style. I loved the aesthetic of this novel. The designs of the characters and the backgrounds were beautiful and I could just get lost in the images. The colour palette as well, with its reds and oranges, felt like a homecoming in a way. Like you had been away for so long and you just wanted to be embraced in the colours and join this beautiful world.

Moving on to the plot. This was sadly the downside to the novel. As an avid murder mystery fan I love anything where the plot focusing on uncovering a mystery specially if it’s a murder mystery. So after seeing the beautiful artwork and world I looked at the blurb and realised it’s also in a genre that I really enjoy! Cracking! I’ll get it. But unfortunately the mystery was incredibly under-developed. The actual investigating was no more than a just a few questions here and there, nothing was really set-up and certain reveals came out of no-where and made no sense.

I understand this is meant to be a small look in into this world and it’s inhabitants but if you’re going to do a mystery I would love it to have more detail and depth in it to really feel like to are uncovering this story alongside the character.

In terms of characters, you don’t learn a great deal about them apart from their function within the story. I play the detective, I play the sweet custodian. But I didn’t mind that. As you all know I am a plot based reader more than a character based reader so not having super detailed and layered characters was fine for me. Also it made sense in the context of the series.

Overall, this was a visually stunning book but I was disappointed as I felt the mystery was under-developed. I just needed a bit more investigating and I would have been happier.