Eu não sei o que pensar deste livro. Como não é o primeiro da série, fiquei um pouco
sem entender algumas coisas, mas... não foi só isso que me fez ficar meio insatisfeita.
Acho que talvez seja o estilo da escrita ou a própria história (que teve umas coisas meio repetitivas)
que me fez não querer dar a nota máxima ao livro.
Embora não tenha ficado tão animada durante a leitura, não quer dizer que irei
banir qualquer obra futura do escritor da minha estante. Só... é.

Private Lessons by Bernard O’Keeffe is the second book in the DI Garibaldi series.
In short, DI Garibaldi’s latest investigation is to discover who murdered a young private tutor found dead in a long abandoned Gothic graveyard frequented by druggies and drunkards.
Having never read any previous books by Bernard I didn’t know what to expect but I can happily say that I thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining read. It’s a very fast start (literally!) which grabbed me from the first pages…very different and laugh out loud moments! DI Jim Garibaldi is such a great character, the non driving detective with a habit of quoting writers and making references that leave people baffled…brilliant. The plot is littered with many suspects and is cleverly unraveled by the numerous interviews, as DI Garibaldi said, ‘You never know what’s relevant until the connection reveals itself”.
Private Lessons is definitely worth a read especially if you like a well written story peppered with dry humour…I’m looking forward to the next case.
Big thanks to Bernard O’Keeffe, Muswell Press and NetGalley for this eARC which I chose to read in return for my honest review.

It's the first mystery I read in this series and I want to read the first as Garibaldi is quite an intriguing character even if not always likeable.
The mystery is well plotted and there's plenty of twists, not all were unexpected but I enjoyed the story and characters.
It's a solid mystery and the author is a good storyteller.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

This is a gem of a book.

If you like procedurals and thrillers and wanted something new from the saturated market, DI Garibaldi is for you.

I loved this book, I love the quirks and the well observed and told story and I will be back for the next book.

Really clever, punchy and great.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Muswell Press for an advance copy of Private Lessons, the second novel to feature DI Jim Garibaldi of the Met, set in Barnes.

Garibaldi is called to Barnes Old Common cemetery where a jogger has found a dead body covered in blood. The victim worked as a private tutor for the Forum Agency, a highly successful company in a lucrative market and had just come back from a summer visit to Italy with the Rivetti family, both of whom appear to be keeping secrets, but so are his friends.

I enjoyed Private Lessons, which has an engrossing mystery and likeable characters. I also found it fairly eye opening on the lengths people with money will go to to give their children a competitive advantage in their education. So much for levelling up. I found it distasteful, as I think the author intends.

The novel is told mostly from the investigative point of view after the prologue, which I think gives away too much of the motive to the reader, and feels like a catch up narrative to the reader’s knowledge. There are plenty of secrets and omissions to be ferreted out and these interviews and re-interviews take up most of the novel. I found them interesting, but, essentially, red herrings. I had guessed much of the solution by the time it came, but I was still impressed by how it was worked out. I liked the neat irony that it was DS Milly Gardner who made it, whom Garibaldi views as less smart than him.

Garibaldi is a man with tragedy in his past, but nowadays I think he might be a figure of some fun to his colleagues with his refusal to drive and his love of country music. He is also fairly arrogant about his intellect, prone to quotations at every turn and dismissive of others’ lack of knowledge. He isn’t overly impressed that Gardner rarely gets his allusions, but, then he overlooks her skills. She is an empathetic interviewer and has a lot of common sense.

Private Lessons is a good read that I can recommend.