Carmen Posadas

Elderly, gay Spanish Londoner Rafael, knowing that there is nothing left in life for him, decides to spend a few weeks in a remote, luxury Moroccan hotel, then put an end to it all. Just before he departs, his gossipy niece tells him the latest juicy details about a Spanish crime passionel, and when he arrives at the hotel just whom should he find there but the delectable widow everyone assumes killed her husband in that scandalous case. Slowly, slowly, glacially slowly, Rafael decides he show more might as well kill one of the other adulterous, duplicitous guests at the hotel before making his own planned exit. This unbearably mannered, arch book offers fairly solid tedium up to about the 30% mark, shows a few flickers of wit and interest thereabouts, and then settles back into tedium for the long haul. I found it quite a struggle to get to the end. show less

An interesting chasse-croisé. A few of the high society crowd finds themselves together in this high end resort. A gossip who intends to end his life, a recently widowed woman, a few illegitimate couples. All the ingredients are there for a recipe for murder, gossip and maybe, just maybe a little love.

A solid story that explores the consequences of rumors, gossip, morality and ethics in a very entertaining way.

This is marketed as a mystery and there is indeed a murder that takes place, but I wouldn't pick this up for the suspense. Rather it's a story about the shady secrets that the characters are hiding and how they think other characters would react if they knew. It's a rather seedy crowd we're dealing with - a couple of them are not hiding "little indiscretions," but rather awful pasts. In the end, the solution to the murder of the chef is haphazard at best and the others are left to go about show more their horrid business. It's partially described as a "foodie"-novel, but the foodie bits are few and far in-between, so that didn't help either. show less

I looked forward to reading Little Indiscretions, even though I'm not typically a murder mystery fan. I'd heard this book revolved around food and was Agatha Christie-like in its style and tone.

Overall, this novel was more about character than plot. Each character was quite well developed. Each had a plausible motive for killing the chef that tied well to their character.

The plot was okay, but thin. It didn't really hold my attention and the pace outright dragged at some points.

Carmen show more Posadas does have a humourous writing style, I'll grant. More than once I chuckled to myself due to her clever turns of phrase.

All in all, I can think of worse ways to spend an afternoon than reading Little Indiscretions, but wouldn't recommend rushing out to find a copy unless you are a die-hard fan of this genre. show less