I’m really glad that I joined the
Orbis Terrarum Challenge, there are so many books out there that I’d love to read but time is such a big factor. I also enjoy reading literature from countries outside of North America. I’m not sure if I could have selected a better book for my first in the Orbis challenge. My first novel was composed in one country but happens to take place a different one.
The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez of Argentina takes place on the island nation of England. I think that is a little obvious from the title but I was a little surprised to find out Martinez was Argentinean, I thought he may be from England. The story is a young Argentinean starting a year at Oxford to further his studies in mathematics, where he is being mentored by the well known Arthur Seldom. It’s not long after his arrival to England than the young Argentinean’s landlady is found dead.
The story progresses when Seldom and the grad student investigate the murder, which ends up being a series of murders. They are all connected by a series of symbols. The two work together to deduce who the murderer may be and assist the police as much as they can.
I wasn’t a huge math fan in high school and I didn’t even consider pursuing the subject when in University. But this book may the subject interesting. The series of symbols found in the book were interesting and I wanted to know more about them. They are described in some detail but I’m still keen to know more about it.
As for the book’s readability, it’s very easy to read. There aren’t many books where I look down and find that I’ve already finished over one hundred pages. It’s great that the book was able to keep me drawn in, given the amount of math that was present in the book. I think it also helped that it was a mystery and I was trying to guess who the murderer may be, and it’s actually very easy to guess. I’m sure the average reader can figure it out after about twenty pages into the book. But that didn’t take away from the book at all.
Even though you can easily guess who did it (and it wasn’t the butler!) the book still had a significant amount of suspense. I was glad that I selected this book for my facebook book group (Bookin’ Around). It was because of this selection that I really felt like joining the Orbis Terrarum Challenge. I found the book very intriguing and look forward to reading more by Guillermo Martinez.
There was one thing that got on my nerves. That was the constant use of the word “maths”. I don’t know what it is about that word but it made my skin crawl every time I read it. And it kept cropping up, not surprisingly given the prominence of arithmetic in the story. It showed up so much it almost made me want to stop reading the book and not look at it again. I’m glad I kept going at it; it was well worth the read.
