Michael Best
In the Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall vein.
This man can write.
For me, this is about as good as it gets in its genre.
Actually a 2.5 for me, which is disappointing because I love his police procedurals (Erlendur series) but they tend to be rather less hectic and more believable.
This is quite a dated read. That said, some of the character set-ups (which form about the first 60% of the book) are very nicely done. Many of the concluding chapters were less satisfying for me.
This was rather disappointing.
I assume the detailed operations procedures are true to life; perhaps, this inevitably resulted in the action/drama being rather undramatic on the page.
What really did it no favours were the shallow, poorly drawn wives and the excessive ethical moralising.
I had a mixed experience with my dips in to Rankin's Rebus series, but this Malcolm Fox Complaints department excursion was really enjoyable.
Initially, I thought I was really going to like this book, but the story did not justify the length, and it began to bore me.
I enjoyed this, though it is not a murder/mystery book but a story of the failed Napoleonic Russia campaign with a shallow murder story sub-plot.
My gut feeling - a short story idea unsuccessfully drawn out to novel length.
Initial echoes of Vonnegut meets Auster proved flatteringly deceiving.
By half way through I was truly bored but continued in the hope its early promise would be mirrored by its conclusion.
Alas, no.
I have no real idea what I read nor any desire to figure out why that is so.
My first, possibly my last Japanese “locked-room” mystery. It was enjoyable enough, though in truth it had one classic piece of mis-direction, guess that you solve the mystery but the rest is rather superfluous.
If one wishes to get a sense of the seemingly never ending senseless pain and drudgery of the French retreat from Moscow in 1812, read this book!
Probably a 3.5.
A novella (a long short-story really), about relationships and ageing.
I do like the way Ms Ziervogel writes; nicely observed and crisp.
Having loved his “Station” series, I thought I would give this book a go, though I had no idea of what to expect when I bought it.
Other reviewers have given an excellent summary of the book and it's “historical account” style.
At times, I found it a little difficult to picture all the military manoeuvrings, but I raced through the book.
Different and a good read.
I liked it but something about the style, I think, stopped me from really enjoying this book.
It felt like it wanted to be a Chandler or Hammett, but the pacing was a bit off.
3.5 really. Does a good job of moving Effi and John in to the immediate post-war of Germany.
An unusual read - written in a pseudo viking saga style.
I didn't love it but I did enjoy reading it.
I enjoyed this novella; however, even for a novella the actual story is very slight.
For such a short book, boy does this pack a punch.
The abuses, deprivation and horrors of war and the holocaust are told in such a matter of fact way because they are seen through the eyes of Izolda, and she has just one purpose - to seek to ensure the man she loves survives the war.
This is a dnf.
I have liked the author's crime books, but I did not enjoy her “chiller” I Remember You. I ought to have learned from that.
I got to half way through this book before giving up: I really had no interest in how the 2 plodding storylines were going to play out.
This is just about better than OK. It takes time to get going and the conceit of it being notes written by the central character is unconvincing - sometimes the notes are very brief with limited grammar whereas at others we get great tranches of verbatim conversation.
Not Ambler at his best but readable.