Only the Lonely - Tamara von Werthern - ★★★★

AUTHOR: Tamara von Werthern

SERIES: Accidental Detective Mystery #1

GENRE: Spoof Cosy Mystery, Humour

RATING: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: I had fun with this indie novella. A quirky lead character, an adorable dog, humour and crime mixed up in a cosy village setting. The perfect light read for crime mystery lovers, though the crime is quite subtle here.

Story Synopsis:

Philipp von Werthern is almost sixty but still lives life somewhat on the edge with his numerous cars, his insurance business, and his dog Maschka. When a beautiful stranger named Annelie Janssen approaches him through a friend’s recommendation with a “crime case”, he is stumped because he is not a professional detective. But how can one refuse a beautiful woman, even if she is young enough to be his daughter? (Or is she?) Thus begins an adventurous and humorous ‘accidental detective’ story.

The story is written in a limited third person perspective mostly from Phillipp’s point of view.

I am not a crime or mystery genre fan. I don’t like it when characters focus only on the looks of other characters or when attractions are based on physical appearance. I hate it when animals are injured in any way in a book. I can’t connect with wide age-gap relationships. (I’m okay with them in real life; I just don’t like reading them.) In other words, I had a multitude of reasons to hate this novella. And yet here I am, a satisfied reader with no major complaints. Go figure!

Where the book worked for me:

😍 Phillipp, whom I should have despised, ended up being a whimsical yet fun character. He is kind of a buffoon, laidback in every way possible and yet running a successful business and having a close relationship with his grown-up children. His reasons for helping out Annelie are unbelievably shallow. Yet he carried this story on his shoulders superbly. (The author’s note and the blurb here on Goodreads reveal that Phillipp was based on her own ‘eccentric real-life’ father; that endeared Phillipp even more to me.)

😍 While it is easy to figure out the “criminal’ of the story (plenty of clues in the title, prologue and the story itself), it isn’t easy to deduce the reason for their actions. So that part took me by surprise.

😍 What I hate most in cosy mysteries is the extended infodumping at the end that reveals every single bit of the criminal’s action and the rationale behind it. The explanation for the criminal’s motivation here is done within a couple of pages without over-elaboration. (Actually, this also makes the ending seem a bit rushed. But it is a novella and one can’t really expect extended details.)

😍 It is always nice to see humour fitted into a genre where you least expect it. There are plenty of funny scenes, most of them because of Phillip’s attitude towards life.

😍 As this is just a little more than a hundred pages long, the novella goes by quickly. Yet, the writing doesn’t compromise on scene descriptions, giving us a nice glimpse of the village of Hofheim where the story is set.

😍 This was originally published in German in 2017, but nowhere could I figure out that this is a translated version. In the couple of places where the dialogues would have made better sense in German, there is an apt insert about the usage of the word without breaking the flow of the plot or the characters. Loved this approach.

😍 Maschka the dog. Who wouldn’t love such a dog!

Where the book could have worked better for me:

😐 The first person prologue is almost like a spoiler to avid thriller readers. While it gives a nice introduction to the story, it leaks out a crucial point from later in the book.

😐 The epilogue also took things much ahead of what I had wanted. It felt like a forced HEA. I think this point stems from my personal preference about the events in the epilogue than the writing itself.

😐 While every book in the village mystery category has at least one nosy neighbour, the zany old lady in this story didn’t get enough page time. I would have loved to see more of her.

It's very rare that I enjoy a book with a character who is so clearly not my type. Yet I find myself charmed by this odd ‘accidental detective’ named Phillipp. Perhaps because he wasn't pretentious about hiding his true self. He was what he was, and he showed it without guilt or glory. I certainly want to read his subsequent adventures.

While the book straddles several genres—it is part crime, part thriller, part cosy mystery, part humour, the best way to describe it is the phrase used in the blurb itself – a ‘spoof crime novel.’ The book doesn’t take itself seriously, and neither should you.

As I was telling one of my Goodreads friends (Hi Thibault!) just a couple of days back, Bollywood movies are best watched with your brains kept aside. This indie novella falls in the same category; it will offer you much entertainment if you don’t overanalyse it. So just go with the flow and enjoy the ride.

Definitely recommended. This is the first time ever I read a comic crime thriller, and I want more of this combo!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author and these are my honest thoughts about it. Thank you very much for this opportunity to read and review your work, Tamara. 😊