Wait, This Was a Mystery? The Case of the Overloaded Historical Fiction Novel

I don’t remember where I first saw this mentioned, but I’m pretty sure it was a book blog, and I liked the cover as well as the premise so I thought it would work well to fill my historical mystery fix. While the novel was entertaining enough, the mystery was rather beside the point (it isn’t until page 250 of a 400 page novel that someone even thinks a body looks a bit odd, even though there are journal entries from the killer throughout so the reader won’t forget this is a murder mystery), and the novel was packed with an overabundance of plot lines and historical details.  Full review.  I rounded up to a 3 but it’s really a 2.5 – just too many distractions that prevent it from being an engaging and tight story.