The Soloist is the second book in the Twist in the Tale Series by Author Anne Wedgwood, however like its predecessor, The Botanist, it is a standalone crime fiction novel. In this story the characters of DI Twist and Sergeant Carter are again called to investigate a murder, but although they are consistent characters in the series, having appeared in both the first and second books, they are not considered to be the main protagonists in either story. The Antagonist (killer) is the main focus of the story, the narration centred around their individual perspectives, which thus enables the readers to understand the motive behind their actions and behaviours, and elicit a certain level of empathy for them.
The plot to the Soloist moves at a satisfactory pace and is an interesting concept. The story taking a different path and view point from the first novel, as the main character, Scarlet who is to commit the murder has been beaten to it, and she finds her victim is already dead. Scarlet then covers up both hers and the killer’s tracks, but makes a fatal error of judgement. Now she, and other members of the Rosewood family are all in the frame for the murder of victim, Max Silento. The roles reverse and our would be killer suddenly turns detective to solve the murder and clear her name, despite the fact that she fully intended on killing Max herself!
The Author does a great job in the constructing and telling of the story and overall this is believable. There is one scene which I would have liked the Author expanding further on which would add more drama and context that I would have expected to arise from the complicated relationships between 3 of the main characters. However, though the Author has not touched on this, it does not detract from my overall enjoyment of the book.
The characters themselves are all entertaining and largely credible, and I really liked the relationship between Scarlet and Ada and the way the Author then kept the reader guessing as to whether Ada genuinely had Scarlet’s best interests at heart, or if she was secretly setting her up to be the scape goat. I cannot say I am particularly taken with DI Twist yet, and I would like to see more development of her character to make her more convincing, particular as the lead investigator. She gets there in the end but she doesn’t really seem a formidable opponent where the criminals are concerned.
The dialogue on the whole is relevant and there are no significant editorial concerns to distract the reader from the enjoyment of the story. As I mentioned earlier the pace is satisfactory and deliberately slow as much of this is necessary to set the scene and backgrounds, and make it more credible for the twist in the tale.
I enjoyed reading and I award 4.5 stars.
