CBR Bingo: ‘Purple’
I loved Brynne Weaver’s Ruinous Love trilogy (consisting of Butcher & Blackbird, Leather & Lark, and Scythe & Sparrow) about serial killers falling in love, so I had been eagerly awaiting her latest novel, Tourist Season, ever since it was announced. Released last month, this is the first in a planned trilogy, set in the same universe as the Ruinous Love series, but with (mostly) new characters.
The main characters are Harper, a resident of the seaside tourist town of Cape Carnage, and Nolan, a visitor. Harper appeared in Butcher & Blackbird but had a different name at the time (the book doesn’t spell it out right away, but it’s really easy to figure out who she is). She spends her days gardening, being a caretaker for an elderly man with Alzheimer’s, and running rude tourists through her woodchipper, Cookie Monster, before feeding the remains to a semi-tamed raven. Nolan is the victim of a hit-and-run car accident along with his brother who was killed. He’s in town to track down and kill the last person that was in the car.
This one has a lot of the same things that made the previous books work so well. For all the grotesque subjects and unhinged characters, it’s balanced out with a tone that’s (relatively) light and funny. It might not work for everyone, but I really enjoy the contrast and Weaver does it well. This one however, kind of falls apart with the plot. The beginning is promising, but overall, the book feels like an incomplete story. I know this is book one of a trilogy and I shouldn’t expect all the answers, but this feels very much like a longer story that was chopped into pieces, and not a complete arc.
I might feel differently about this one (for better or for worse) if I’d been able to read the next book right away. I had fun while I was reading it, but in the aftermath I’m mostly just disappointed that very little was resolved, and I’m left with absolutely no feeling of closure.