Michael Best

I found this to be an ok read but a somewhat second rate Ambler.

Accepting that I read this after a great Graham Greene, even so I found it baggy, over-long and a bit of a chore to finish.

Although this tale is rather broadly and unsubtly drawn, I fear it may still hold a degree of truth as to the real holders of power in the UK.

I found this to be a touch ponderous.

I think this is a really good book, but a tough read. Although it is only relatively short, it took me some days to read because, at times, I found I could only cope with reading 10 or 15 pages before the relentless, soul destroying violence of war demanded I take a break and seek some inner peace.

I really enjoyed this Robert Harris thriller.

I really felt I had been taken back to war-torn Britain.

I first read this nearly 40 years ago and really liked it.

Coming back to it now, after so many years, I have been delighted to discover that it still captures me. Yes, it seems seriously weak on its imagining of technology so far ahead, but I don't care: the Shakespearean level of familial and political skullduggery on a solar system scale does it for me.

So close to a 5 star Wow.

A short, moving, powerful tale about a group of 4 Republicans seeking to evade the hunt of the Franco government forces.

Possibly 3.5. I was pretty gripped by this adventure style story.

I enjoyed the writing. The multi-plot story was a little too coincidental but I will seek the second in the series.

As a crime/thriller this fails. As a story about the 1809 Napoleon Austrian campaign it is an OK read which is short enough to allow one to forgive its weaknesses.

There are bits of this book I really liked but, on finishing it, my feeling was one of meh! The final WWII section piled one incredible coincidence upon another - to the point where I assume the intention was to turn the entire story into just another of Herman's tall-tales.

It is a big book, but not an epic story.

A book which seems to promise much but has nothing to say.

My reading of this book was a bit broken up, and that was not all the fault of the book. However, that does not alter my conclusion that I did not really like this book. It was rather predictable in some respects and completely unbelievable in others.

I read this as a teenager, many years ago. I enjoyed it far more this time.

This is a DNF, so has to have a 1 star.

Sorry, but I never believed in the voice of Richard for a second and, although the author details lots of historical facts, I got no feel for the period at all.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. It is an entirely fictional tale loosely built around some historical material. At times, the story stretched credibilty too far but it remained a good read.

I really enjoyed this series but I felt this last was one of the weaker. Perhaps a less dramatic, more gentle last book might have been a more satisfying conclusion for me, but probably that would have disappointed most other readers of the series.

Sorry but a DNF.

As much as The Hanging Shed was a pleasant surprise, this was a disappointment. Cliched. It read like it was a writing experiment. Chapter 30 killed it for me.

This is the third of the Korolev series which I have read and, in my opinion, the best yet. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This took far longer for me to read than it should have done.

The culprit was obvious.

The style a little plodding even if there was plenty of historical detail.

I enjoyed this, though it did take a slightly over-dramatic and less credible trip to Danzig.

I enjoyed his first novel, Containment, but this left me bored. Way too heavy on the tech details, with not enough concentration on seeking to produce a believable, well told story.

A short book but, perhaps because of that, one that feels slightly insubstantial/superficial.

My e-book version seemed to have been created by a poor OCR process resulting in some rather strange words.

Lightweight, fun and I felt it conveyed a good sense of time and place (though Sir Robert Storey is a bit too good to be true!).