Michael Best
The writing was great, but the story full of unbelievable coincidences, racial stereotyping and bourgeois angst.
It starts off well enough - giving the impression that it will turn out to be a “rollicking good yarn” sort of book. However, for me, it got rather bogged down with the Arabian Nights style stuff which takes up so much of its core.
I have enjoyed Yrsa's crime novels but this “chiller thriller” was not for me. It felt a bit “mechanical” and rather predictable.
I have loved some of his other works, so I was surprised that I found this a little turgid at times. It was still interesting enough that I will seek out a copy of volume 2.
It took me a good one third of the book to get in to the style and rhythm of the writing, but I was then hooked. Very powerful.
I enjoyed this, though it was more disjointed than I had expected.
In so far as I was able to form any impression of Isherwood, I am not sure I liked him much.
Possibly 3.5. I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to get round to reading this. I feel it is the sort of book I should have read when, in the early 80's, I was catching up on early/mid Roth and Heller, + Heinlein's “Stranger in a Strange Land” and Dick's “A Scanner Darkly”. It is not really science fiction. I found it a “bum trip” but a good read.
Reading this more than 20 years after I first read it, I am a little surprised how much I enjoyed it second time around. Indeed, as other reviewers have mentioned to be their experience, I drew more depth from it this time around.
The ‘down and out' chapters were good - sympathetic, without being rose-tinted.
The grammar, and policy chapters were strangely placed; they both broke the flow of the narrative and seemed better suited as appendices.
My ebook copy was poorly proof-read.
The story was very enjoyable. Certainly it has tempted me to seek out the next in the series.
This is not your standard police procedural; it is as much interested in the place of a good Chinese person in late twentieth century China.
Perhaps my ignorance of Chinese manners and behaviour was the cause of my occasionally faltering in my enjoyment of the story, but it won me over and I will seek out the second in the series.
I really enjoyed The Last Policeman, but this second book I found disappointing. As I was reading it I could not stop myself thinking “I wish he had just written the first book and then decided to leave things alone”.
Sadly, I have already purchased the third book. I will read it, but I have no enthusiasm to.
Perhaps 2.5. This is my least favourite Bruno book to date. Perhaps it was the relocation to Paris (I got no real feel for the city), or the increasingly over the top action/escape scenes.
Disappointingly cliche filled and increasingly dull book by someone who clearly has a way with words.
For me a 2.5. I found the tale amusing but not funny. Whilst I liked the writing, I found the ‘‘you have got to love them because their hearts are in the right place'' a little bit too sickly sweet to swallow.
Probably a 3.5. I feel it needs to be read with as few breaks as possible to get in to the rhythm and pattern of it. Perhaps because did break up the first 30% with too many breaks, and because I am left with too many frustrating doubts and niggles, that I have concluded it rather flattered to deceive. (My partner vehemently disagrees with me, as it is a book she loves - so I am undoubtedly wrong).
Though this is promoted as an Inspector Erlendur novel, Erlendur is not in it. It is about his colleague, Sigurdur Oli.
Nothing radical here, but very nicely written and a fresh voice. I really enjoyed the read and will be seeking out the next in the series.
A difficult one to rate for me - the writing was excellent but I can't say I liked the book because I have just spent 85 years in the life of someone I really did not like very much.