Words, complaining about words.

I don't have a ton of inspiration today, so I am going to complain instead.

Zena likes to have some form of audio on when she goes to bed, I require nearly absolute silence to sleep but I usually go to bed some hours after her so it isn't a problem for me to turn it off when I climb in, her noise ranges from movie soundtracks, to actual movies, to audiobooks, it is the latter that I wish to complain about tonight.

Zena has a love for terrible mysteries featuring a curiously financially independent and nosy female protagonist who lives in a small town with an inordinate amount of murderous folks living there, good for at least one body per novel. Usually I don't mind these that much, but tonight's offering is particularly abrasive, I speak of the Aunt Dimity series by Nancy Atherton. Apparently Aunt Dimity is a ghost who communicates through a journal held by her niece? And together they solve crime. Pretty sure this is also the plot to the short lived 90s TV series Ghost Writer as well and it would be a pretty decent premise except for the fact that the crimes are unbearably banal it seems.

The current one includes a wealthy dead recluse, but it is quite clear that he died of natural causes and is not the subject of the investigation. So far most of the attention is given to a wishing well, and the fact that it is really rainy, this is a big deal in England apparently, where excitement is hard to come by I guess, as I write this a major piece of drama is revealed when one character is mad at another because... they didn't buy something at a rummage sale? It is not really clear.

The word tweed is used several times, and every time a new character is introduced, or a character we have seen before is seen again, at least a paragraph is devoted to excruciating details of the clothing.

The woman reading the audio book has perhaps the worst English accent I have ever heard.

I don't think anything interesting is going to happen in this story, I must go to bed to protect my sanity before I have to listen to another description of a lunch break.

Oh, and before anyone thinks I am criticizing Zena's taste in books, I totally am, but she acknowledges they are terrible and likes them anyway, also doesn't mind my complaints as long as I am funny about it, I like some pretty trashy stuff too, so I really don't deserve the high ground here either.