The Redemption of Malcolm Sinclair (Casebook of Barnaby Adair 3)

I have enjoyed the writing of Stephanie for some time. It was a delight to read of Malcom's coming of age after reading of his growing moral character in a previous novel. As always well written, with insights into a (gentler?) time of the past so that you can picture the life they lead .

First, the bedroom scenes were yawn because they were pages and pages of words - little electricity. The beginning started out well but the last half was plodding, especially when the author repeated herself over and over again. Not a book I can recommend

I absolutely loved reading about Malcolm Sinclair's second chance. I thought SL handled his path to redemption wonderfully - instead of making a complete 180, Malcolm still struggled to overcome his default responses/mindset, but he was very believably motivated to make significant changes to his character. I really enjoyed Rose's character and her interactions with the children, with Malcolm, and Malcolm's interactions with the children. It was just uncomfortable enough to be believable and then natural enough to be completely sweet. Their romance was very sweet without being too overdone and was a very enjoyable read. I even liked Rose and the children's backstory and how they reached this point in their lives. I wasn't a huge fan of their love scenes - they didn't need to explicit, but the cliche, over-blown, romance-novel-descriptions were eye-roll-worthy - lots of torrents of passion, welling waves of pleasure, and passion-storms and so on. But whatever. The first half of the book was SL at her best and was one of the more enjoyable books she's written.

But then Barnaby and friends got involved and everything just went downhill from there. Let me preface this by saying that I really do not like these new Barnaby Adair Casebook investigations. I actually liked Barnaby back when he was originally introduced and didn't mind the investigations back when he did his investigating off-page and just reported back to the main characters. But if the format of the second half of this book and format of The Masterful Mr. Montague are going to be her go-to, I will not be reading any more investigation stories. The principle characters - Malcolm and Rose - practically disappear once Barnaby and Stokes and their wives take over. SO much time is wasted as each individual member pursues their own inquiries and then they all come back together and exhaustively rehash everything just so one of the wives can say, "so basically, this is what we know...", rehash all the facts again and then state an obvious conclusion. I'm not sure why SL is choosing to do this - if she thinks the readers can't follow the investigation and need the constant recital of facts, or if it is her attempt at fooling the reader to follow the same red herring the investigative team is following. Regardless, it's annoying.

But what makes everything worse - this crackpot team of investigators are terrible. They jump to conclusions, make assumptions, and bumble their way through until the villain finally makes a mistake and shows his hand.

Spoilers follow so please proceed with caution!

In Montague's book and this book, they take the word of the heroine at face value and don't make any attempt to vet her story. If they had done so and either checked the Debrett's book that has always been so present in stories before or verified facts with the solicitor they would have realized that they were making a huge mistake. The thing that drove me insane, though, was how completely stupid everyone was. After going to so much trouble to sneak out of town, up the coast, and to London (so they could SPECIFICALLY disappear in London) they go on a series of outings over the course of the week - and these outings aren't to private residences but to tourist spots and shopping. So naturally, the villain finds them - pretty easily. And to cap things off, the big climatic scene happens the exact same way it happened in Montague's story - the investigation is so specifically and totally focused on one person that they only guard against that one specific person and throw all other caution to the wind.

MAJOR SPOILER - you have a child who's life is being threatened and is in hiding (finally), then a long lost relative mysteriously shows up at the house and no one questions why he is there or stops and thinks that it might be a bad idea for this random relative to leave the house with the children all because the boy remembers him from four years ago when he was six. Then they all find out the boy is in the hands of his would-be-murderer and what do they do? Stand around in the foyer and talk. And talk. And talk. And finally come up with a somewhat effective plan. It almost seems like there was some kind of outline, like she knew exactly how she wanted the final climatic scene to work out and then just manipulated the storyline to fit with that scene instead of naturally letting the story flow.

It was just really disappointing and very, very frustrating. The book started off being SO GOOD and then just pfft.

I was pleasantly surprised by the first half of the book: the romance developed better than I could have hoped for after reading the second installment of the Casebook of Barnaby Adair series, The Masterful Mr. Montague: A Casebook of Barnaby Adair Novel.

The new incarnation of Malcolm, Thomas Glendower, is a changed man: kind, self-effacing, and capable gentleman with all the markings of a true beta hero. Returning to an estate he purchased in Beyond Seduction to await his final penance for the sins committed as Malcolm, he finds a widowed housekeeper with two children in need of his help. Unequal stations prevent the new Malcolm from pursuing Rose despite the growing physical attraction, and it is up to Rose to make the first move. All through the book, she is the driving force behind the romance and she ultimately becomes Malcolm's last salvation. In other words, it would have been a five-star book for me if the murder mystery hadn't been such a disappointment.

A major spoiler follows, so do not read any further if you'd rather follow the story to see whodunit.

The entire team of investigators - Barnaby, Stokes and the gang - believed the children's uncle to be the villain based on the conversation Rose overheard after the funeral of her mother and stepfather and the assumption that his motive was the inheritance. They spend days in fruitless search for a financial motive to prove his culpability, even when it was becoming increasingly clear he did not fit the profile. And no one checked Debrett's. Once again, the casebook proved having too many hands in one investigation is detrimental to its success.

Incidentally, if you want to learn of Malcolm Sinclair's sins, which are largely glossed over in this book, you can find them in these two:
To Distraction (Bastion Club), where Malcolm's unlamented guardian commits suicide after being caught putting the first of Malcolm's ingenious schemes into play, and Edith Balmain gives Malcolm advice he recalls in the Redemption.
and
The Taste of Innocence (Cynster Novels), where the ramifications of Malcolm's schemes catchup with him, and the fated fall from the bridge takes place.

As promised, after my review of The Masterful Mr. Montague: A Casebook of Barnaby Adair Novel, which I found lacking, I’m back with reviewing Loving Rose and I’m not just going to recommend it. I am going to ask you to read it. Please! It is now officially my favorite Stephanie Laurens book.

When I read the title and found out that Malcolm Sinclair gets introduced in To Distraction (Bastion Club), then shows up again in The Taste of Innocence (Cynster Novels), I ran to my SL Keeper shelf and dug those two books up, so I can do the character justice and get to know why he needed this redemption. Boy was I happy to do that! Honestly, if you don’t read these two books, you’ll miss out on two great stories and on characterization of Malcolm.

That said, if you can’t track those two books down, it’s okay to read this one. SL does a great job of catching you up on everything that passed before, plus I really want you to read this overwhelmingly touching love story.

This is the third book in the Barnaby Adair series, and if you’ve read the other two, then you know that Barnaby Adair and his wife Penelope with their friends, Stokes and his better half, they team up and lend their services as investigators to the élite society.

What an awesome rendition of redemption!

It is told with care and at a pace that makes it believable and acceptable to the reader. Malcolm was not a good man, and we needed to accept him and his actions of before and after his character turns the leaf of his life. We needed to feel the remorse he felt and SL delivered in spades!

As for Rose, I loved her from the start and if anyone could have helped this man be all that he could, it was her.

There is the mystery here of Rose and who she really is, but it easily fell on the wayside of my brain which totally concentrated on the journey these two had to go through to be together.

I’m not sure about you, but SL, at least for me, is always either a hit or a miss, and usually it’s if I liked the one I read, it almost goes without a fail, I’ll not be happy with the next one, or the opposite. This is a MUST! Did you hear what I said?! MUST!

Melanie for b2b

Complimentary copy provided by the publisher

Malcolm Sinclair, aka Thomas Glendower, is granted a second chance, and he grabs ahold of that chance with both hands. After rehabilitating and feeling that he needs to endeavor to seek what is needed of him, he returns to one of his properties to find a strange woman and children have taken up residence. Rose and the children have a good reason for being there, but she can’t completely trust Malcolm, or Thomas as he is now known, with the truth. When her past reappears, Rose finds that she can only turn to Thomas for help, and in seeking his own redemption, Thomas gladly extends it.

Loving Rose: The Redemption of Malcolm Sinclair was rich with details that drew the reader completely into the characters’ world. There was also a great mystery that longed to be solved that Malcolm as Thomas stumbled across when he returned. Ms. Laurens held on tightly to her secrets until Loving Rose: The Redemption of Malcolm Sinclair was drawing near its end as the characters unraveled the mystery.

I’m not sure how evil Malcolm was, given that I didn’t read the story that he originated from. However, I believed that he truly felt remorseful for his past misdeeds and sought redemption in Loving Rose: The Redemption of Malcolm Sinclair.

This book was reviewed by Vanessa for Joyfully Reviewed (JR), and was provided by the publisher/author at no cost to JR for the purpose of being reviewed.