David Best

I like Mr Wilton's writing but I preferred his Archives of the Comptrollerate-General for Scrutiny and Survey series. This book seemed rather more tongue-in-cheek. than a classic Buchanesque adventure/thriller.

A lot easier to read than I had feared it would be.

For such a short story, it was a struggle to complete.

The style of writing is too heavy handed for me.

I have been generous in giving this a 3.

I liked they style of writing and many aspects of the tale, but there is simply too much story concentrating on excessive drinking and heavy smoking which just clogs the narrative.

Probably a 2.5.

I am a little uncertain as to the audience for this book. The science within it is not simple, though the author does try to explain the theorising. The history/biography element is interesting, though the structure seems a little disjointed at times. The translation is not perfect, particularly with some odd verb tense choices.

All that said, I learnt from reading it, which is what I was hoping.

I will assume that I needed to know far more about Columbian history for this story to have grabbed me.

As it is, it became rather tedious with a central author who seemed incredbily self-centred in his assessment of other's behaviours.

I like the writing style. I just felt the story went on a little too long.

I found this a thoroughly engrossing read about the very strange world of a group of double agents who helped win WWII.

DNF. I have given up after the fourth story.

My Atwood experience is quite mixed, with this definitely on the dislike end.

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.

Not my favourite in the series. Rather too heavy on the polictical lecturing and too light on the police procedural story.

This book took much longer to complete than I expected but this was because I found the early stories upsetting - it was too tough to finish one story and immediately begin the next.

The final two stories took the book from a 4 to a 3 - perhaps they were more personal and lacked the impact of the matter of fact telling of the others?

As with the first book in the series, I liked much of what this book offers but there are just too many damn shoot-outs. Oh, for a bit more sleuthing and a little less gun play.

As with the first book in the series, I liked much of what this book offers but there are just too many damn shoot-outs. Oh, for a bit more sleuthing and a little less gun play.

Perhaps some rave reviews had raised my expectations too much, but I felt slightly disappointed with this book.

Unusually for me, I think I would have liked the story to be a bit longer. The family changed so much once money entered its life, that I wanted a bit more than just the “then and now”.

Problem one: I really dislike dialogue with no speech marks.

Problem two: I strongly disliked David Hartley.

There was an awful lot in this book I did like, but those two problems were a heavy burden.

I really struggle with Satanic/black magic storylines and I think that is why it took me so long to get through this book.

The “noir”, hardboiled detective style was great. It was just that tricky subject matter that makes me mark this as a 3 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.

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.

The writing was great, but the story full of unbelievable coincidences, racial stereotyping and bourgeois angst.

The writing was great, but the story full of unbelievable coincidences, racial stereotyping and bourgeois angst.

To my shame, I had never heard of this book until I heard it talked about on BBC's A Good Read.

It is a rollicking good read.

Oh dear, a military SF - I should have read the blurb!

I finished it, but I cannot say I enjoyed it much. There was certainly lots of gore and evisceration.

Also, some strange choice of verb tenses and the uncorrected use of “where” instead of “were”.

The concept was intriguing. The execution a bit heavyhanded.

Both clever and preposterous. Enjoyable nonetheless.