Mara’s Flowery Arrows by Siam’s Unnamed
- mystery -
reviewed by Amanda
received paperback for review
Links
Amazon : paperback
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This book in 6 words:
Interesting read, but not very memorable.
Why did I read this? And am I glad I did?
I read this book because I received it to review. It was definitely an interesting read, though I’m not sure I would say that I am glad I read it.
Brief Summary
In the far east of the Indochina peninsula during the Ninth Century A.D., Prince Asaka fights against the intrigues of the Khmer Court.A son of the King is found assassinated: why would somebody want to accuse an innocent poor slave of such an important crime? Our hero, also involved in the crime as owner of the slave as well as more directly, manages to extract himself and to identify the true culprit thanks to the help of two friends. Twists and turns are abundant in the story; and in the final hearing we do find the Public Prosecutor and the Defense Attorney, with abundant cross-questioning ante litteram of the testimonies, documentary proof as well as circumstantial.-from the back of the book
(I also noticed they used the word “abundant” twice in the summary…which I find odd since abundant is not a word people use…abundantly)
Plot/Pacing/Writing Style
This book was very difficult for me to get into. There was sooooo much information and names and titles at the very beginning that I just slogged through the first few chapters of the book. Once I got past all that overwhelming information and the story began, I started enjoying the story a little more. I still wasn’t overly fond of this book, and found it pretty easy to put it down and pick it back up again. It was well-written, but not engrossing. Parts of the mystery were easy to figure out, and although I didn’t bother to think about the characters and who might have been behind the assassination plot, I am sure that I would have been able to figure it out had I given it any thought.
Characters
Prince Asaka is the main character. I never felt very connected with any of the characters, like this was an unemotional telling of a story. I was left feeling suspicious of Asaka’s teacher through much of the book, but I’m not really sure why.
The only thing I want to touch on here is how sex is presented in this book. It is viewed more as a casual carnal pleasure, and for some reason, this really put me off, and made it hard for me to connect with the characters. There were also two scenes of male homosexual intercourse, so if that would make you uncomfortable, this is probably not the book for you.
Recommendations
If you’re looking for books that are different than your average mystery, or that involve the Indochina (around present day Thailand and Burma?), this might be one to read.
