Joseph Zizza
Not as much fun Puzzle for Fiends, but entertaining enough. Not going to fall over myself to read further in this Peter Duluth series.
Both smug and tedious. I don't think I'll be reading any more about the bizarre Mrs Bradley.
Third Craven I've read and they've all been page-turners. Avison Fluke is a very different protagonist from Washington Poe, but result is the same. Great story, with twists and turns and surprises. And a satisfying ending. Will be reading more of his.
There's a good story in here, but it's weighed down by philosophical musings from 15 year olds, completely incredible speeches by middle-aged mothers, painfully obvious “hidden” truths and a very heavy dose of guilt-ridden and tormented characters who drink, drug and screw their worries away. I kept going, but rolled my eyes several times, especially during the anti-climactic denouement.
My first Powys book and a real shock it was. He goes into such tremendous depth about the characters thoughts and feelings that I was reminded of Proust. He finds significance in the apparently trivial and transmits his fascination with the universe, nature, people and just about everything else. The plot, such as it is, is the story of a young man, Wolf Solent, returning to his roots in Dorset after ten years in London, but it is about all the major themes: life and death, good and evil, reality and appearance, and so on and so on. A longish book first published in 1929, it is one of my favourites, and I am forever grateful to my friend Michael for introducing me to Powys.
A sloppy ending damaged a very entertaining hard-boiled thriller. I suspect Macdonald was trying to avoid cliche, but the last fifteen pages or so just didn't work for me. But he's still awesome.
This writer is a master, and this is a well-paced and intriguing thriller about some fairly unusual topics, especially for the time period. It's a shame he's mostly known for his Travis McGee novels, as his non-series novels are grittier and more hard-boiled. Recommended
Solid and absorbing entry in the famous Perry Mason series. This one is all detective work and never sets foot in the courtroom. Breezy and brisk, the story flies along and there's no filler or wasted words. It's closer to a hard-boiled detective novel than the courtroom dramas many of the Mason stories are. Very enjoyable.
Edgar Wallace was THE thriller writer in the early part of the twentieth century, and this and The Mind of JG Reeder demonstrate why. Breezy storytelling style (with not infrequent sloppiness) and a flair for creating an atmosphere of murky mystery work well. I enjoyed this, despite its occasional clunkiness. Wallace's personal attitudes would have gotten him “cancelled” in today's world, but his work stands up pretty well for hundred year old stuff.
I don't get all the fuss about this book. It was enjoyable, but never rose above 5 on scale of 1-10. Maybe its status is due to it being the first of the Ed and Am books, but it fell short of being exciting, and I'm not keen on any more of these.
Satisfying entry in the Dismas Hardy series, closing the loop on story lines from previous books. Like putting on an old comfortable pair of slippers>
Farjeon is a recent discovery for me, a devoted mystery reader, and he is two for two. The Z Murders was quite satisfying, and this reminded me what I enjoy about country house murder mysteries. A delight from start to finish.
Entertaining and engaging but stretched out. I estimate its 213 pages could have been reduced to 150 without negatively impacting the story. MacDonald pads it with detailed descriptions of irrelevant things and by spending an inordinate amount of time on the behaviour of the wife of the unjustly convicted prisoner. If I had been his editor, I would have had a long and pointed conversation with the author. Not his best effort by a long shot.
I enjoyed two previous entries in this series, but found this tedious and the narrator/chronicler an infuriatingly stuck up prig whose method of telling the story focused far too much on what he (a willfully blind, narrow-minded, old-fashioned bigot) thinks and not enough on the story or his detective. I know he's “supposed” to be a fool, a kind of Nigel Bruce-style Watson, but there are limits. He's such an ass that he's insufferable, and the book suffers for it. I cannot recommend this, despite the fact that the solution is clever and unexpected.
For most of its 240 pages, this is an entertaining Gothic mystery. It falls down badly at the end, as a lengthy conversation reveals all the answers to questions raised in the story. It is curiously flat and lacking in narrative drive in the last pages, a surprisingly weak denouement from a writer famous for atmosphere and tension in his books. It is nominally a Gideon Fell mystery, but Fell is rarely in it, and the “solution” is unveiled by the main character, Patrick Butler. Butler is not a success as a character, coming across like a minor character in a forties movie melodrama, all arrogance and bluster. One of the weakest Carr novels I've read. Not recommended.
One of the five or ten most reliable thriller writers around, Lescroart continues to produce quality work into his seventies. Thoroughly enjoyable, with the familar cast of San Francisco characters and an unusual plot. Good stuff!
Mildly diverting set of short stories involving Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw. Not up to the novels' standard, but a satisfying fix for those craving more of this entertaining duo.
I read a whole bunch of Travis McGee novels in my youth, and a bit apprehensive that this wouldn't live to memories of how good they were. I was wrong. This is well-written, suspenseful and engaging, along with having a strong streak of environmental concern running through it. The recommendations from such writers as Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King and Richard Condon should be enough to convince anyone to read his stuff. Highly recommended.
Starts quite promisingly, but once the murder happens, its becomes quite tedious. There is a several-page discussion about how a car could have crashed on a steep road. It goes on forever and concludes that it isn't possible to tell. That describes the book in a way. The detective is methodical and determined, but has suspicions and no evidence. And so we explore every possibility, in some detail before a completely unsuspected and almost irrelevant character turns out to have done it. I have read good things about Lorac, but this book was a very big disappointment. It's full of (now dated) observation about Devon and “country people”, but it is not entertaining or relevant, just background material. I will not be tracking down more Lorac books. This is #27 in the Robert MacDonald mysteries. Not for me! First and last.
Easily one of the worst Carr novels I've read. Characters speak as no human being speaks, as if their sole purpose is exposition. Carr's most annoying tricks (interruptions when a revelation is about to occur, characters keeping information secret for no reason) are on full display here, and by the time the “mystery” is revealed, it's hard to care any more. Stick with the early novels. They are at least fresh, both in ideas and delivery.
This is the weakest Carr novel I've read. The Merrivale books started out well in the thirties, but the later ones are quasi-comic, discursive and only occasionally mysterious. This one is completely ridiculous: the plot, the relationships, the core conceit–it's just not good, and it could have been a third shorter and lost nothing. Currently has my vote for worst book of Carr's career.