Michael Best
Simply, a first-class thriller.
Less simply, an unpleasantly accurate portrayal of the Troubles in the mid '70s.
An ok thriller ruined by the entirely unnecessary sex scenes and the general sexual objectification of the female characters.
An interesting start promised much but then fails to deliver and eventually becomes a complete disappointment. The structure of the book also adds to a piecemeal feeling.
This is the third time, I think, that I have read this book and the first time I have really enjoyed it. In my younger years, I found it too “talky” and lacking in action. I have, clearly, changed in my taste/appreciation.
I enjoyed this early 1960s police procedural.
Unfortunately, my ebook copy was very poorly formatted.
I enjoy his writing, but I was not as carried away by this as I was by Pavel & I. Something about the story just felt overly contrived.
Perhaps reading this without reading any of the earlier works in the series did not help, but I found the characters flat, uninteresting and, at times, completely incredible. The story possessed similar qualities to the characters.
An enjoyable crime mystery. Easy to read.
Aunt Poldi is an interesting creation - imagine Miss Marple as a mildly depressed, alcoholic German/Italian played by a late middle-aged, slightly over-weight Sophia Loren in modern-day Sicily.
I need time to reflect on whether there was enough in this book to tempt me to buy the next in the series.
A top end 3. I enjoyed this the most in the trilogy, with there seeming to be a better fit of the battle history and the crime “mystery”.
I liked the creativity of the ideas in this book. The world building was great. It was a little overlong. For me, its greatest crime is that it ends without an ending.
I enjoyed this early 1960s police procedural.
Unfortunately, my ebook copy was very poorly formatted.
Perhaps it was the translation, perhaps the original writing style but I did not enjoy this particularly.
A very interesting and informative read, if not quite what I was expecting.
My mistake was to expect a book based upon the author's experiences at sea. In fact, the book is more a series of chapters on aspects of the merchant navy e.g piracy, environmental impact, employment pratices etc, with her spell on board a large shipping container ship merely the framework.
Did not finish. Not funny. Not even mildly amusing. Making “Dawkins” such an extreme, unbelievable caricature is not inherently funny. The book is devoid of any other idea.
This is really a 1 but I guess it is my fault, I should have learnt my lesson from reading “One of Us”.
His writing is just not for me and it was a chore to finish this book.
This is the third time, I think, that I have read this book and the first time I have really enjoyed it. In my younger years, I found it too “talky” and lacking in action. I have, clearly, changed in my taste/appreciation.
The mixing of historical fact and fiction surrounding the death of Edward VI and the short reign of Lady Jane Grey was fine, but the character of Brendan Prescott and his actions were a little bit too over-wrought. The tale of his parentage was cliched.
Probably around 3.25.
As the last Wallander, I really wanted to love this book but I can't.
The combination of an underwhelming tale of espionage and a wish to bring Wallander's life to a conclusion did not really work for me.