Kitty

Super thrilling, as always, but not very rewarding in the sense of characters or atmosphere. Plus she explains everything 4 times.

Started out great, even though it had very little action, which is normally not to my liking, and I found myself fascinated by the strange story - but at 2/3rds the timeline made a sudden twist and I got confused and got lost and gave it up.

I read, in other reviews, that plotting and timing are her weak points. Such a pity. Publishers have editors, don't they?

An OK read, interesting plot. Emotionally not very rewarding, though. Precious little emotional development. Typical male action-writing ;-)

Abandoned at 4/5th. Well written yet I could not stand the gloomy atmosphere and the protagonist was clearly getting nowhere. I certainly missed a lot of the British humor & historical references.

I love all of his hooks. Mild and entertaining.

Abandoned at 4/5ths. The book does not come alive. I remember liking some of his work in the past.

I love this series. God knows why. It's not extremely witty. The writer overexplains - I can keep up with the story line, thank you. And yet I just love the characters. Possibly I am very shallow. This is like a cosy Netflix series you won't advertise you're watching. And this book is not the best in the series. It really only picks up pace towards the end. But wottehell. I felt a little depressed, and this book helped.

This charming and bizar series came to my attention via Christopher (Bryant & May) Fowlers blog. If the master of comic historic crime is reading it, I thought, there may be something in it.

So here I am, reading the entire series. It is lighter and more bizar than Fowler's own work, and this particular book had an intricate and highly unbelievable outcome - but that is part of the fun, I guess.

And besides, I am reading it like a series now, wondering when the heck Marge and inspector Pound will finally get married. (No spoilers, but I know the answer by now). Or what absurdities Molly the maid will come up with next. Marge itself is starting to poke fun of her mentor - either way, I am all caught up in this totally fantastiscal 19th century nonsense series.

Any book that makes me chuckle every few pages is a worthy companion, as far as I am concerned.

Zelfonderzoek in de vorm van een dagboek. Lekker brutaal. In één ruk uitgelezen. En toen gebruikt voor een niet erg diepgravend blogje over brutaliteit: https://www.deblogacademie.nl/waarom-je-brutaal-moet-schrijven/

This is skilfully written and full of cliffhangers. But it is also an annoying book, filled with melodrama and endless protracted sex scenes that are all boringly magical and transporting - and there is some sadism that gets described way too fully.

The first chapters about her genealogist-husband Frank were very witty. Very relatable ;-) None of the rest really comes near, in retrospect.

So I was hooked. I could not put it down, (ie stop listening to the audiobook) but I did not like myself better for it. If I hear Sassenach one more time, I will scream.

Starts good, slows down, too sweet, lost interest.

Could not get excited about this one.

Too James Bond-ish, really.

Starts good, quickly get schematic and lifeless. Abandoned.

Super read. Fast. Very male type of writing and thinking. Small story, great quality.

Fun book. Develishly whirling plot. Not particularly beautifully written, sentence per sentence; pretty straightforward. But great characters and a good vibe.

Witty, fun characters, not very deep. And, of course, rather anachronistic. But retro-19th century crime is great fun, too.

Great book. Compelling style. Nice cast of characters. The plot, in the end, is a little contrived, but who cares when the writing is so good.

Interesting. Erudite. Witty. Enlightening. The first essays are the best - less interesting matters towards the end.

Great series.

Short stories.

Unlike her usual, witty love stories this ia a long drawn out story about the unnecessary moral qualms of the heroine. The madness of the cousin his mother wants the heroine to marry is pretty ludicrous - misunderstood, weirdly construed - and the madness of the mother gets hardly explained. I left the last quarter unread.

Typisch Voskuil. Dat hij stiekem een aardbei pikt en de andere dan zo verschikt dat Nicolien het niet merkt. Anders maakt ze weer een scène: ‘Je dacht zeker dat ik dat niet zou zien! Maar ik zie het wel! Je bederft alles! Ik eis dat je hem uitspuugt!' ;-)

Ik vermoed dat hij en zijn vrouw allebei wat autistisch waren. Uit de kringen van het Meertens instituut hoor ik dat hij een dwingende baas was, rigide, met weinig inlevingsvermogen.

Een heel Nederlands boek ook. Ik ben dol op Voskuil, maar god weet waarom. Misschien omdat de overdreven gewoonheid bijna absurdistisch is. De eindeloze herhalingen - ‘Dag Jansen', ‘Dag Pietersen' - en de bewuste opeenstapeling van cliché's zijn ook geweldig. Minder navrant dan De avonden, maar hij geeft dezelfde geestdodende sfeer weer.

Dit boek is een tussendoortje. Of een toetje. Haalt het niet bij het Bureau, maar het is wel zachter en liever. Dus vooruit, 4 sterren.

Typical Reacher. Lotta fighting. But such a great style. The best adverb is right in the beginning, where it says the town was a polite dot on the map. I wish Child would keep up that frivolity longer. He gets into fighting mode pretty quick.

Not mych information. Everything is anecdotal. Not even an idea of how many women the author interviewed.