Joseph Zizza

Wildly overrated “novel” about a bunch of beatniks travelling around and having “adventures”, mostly involving drugs and sex and being liberated and putting it “to the man”. Pathetically trying to be cool and irreverent but coming off immature, like rebellious teenagers. I don't understand why people rate this book highly. It's not much and what there is is repeated again and again.

I very much enjoyed this book. Good pace, interesting setting, a lively set of characters. I didn't find it much of a detective story, though, as the “detective”, a likeable enough fellow, didn't really solve the murder mystery. In some ways that made it a more realistic story, but the Golden Age “fair play” rules weren't actually followed. This is not really important, as it didn't interfere with my enjoyment, but for those focused on the puzzle and working it out, this doesn't really play to those expectations.

Suspenseful, well-written, mostly credible thriller based on two of the most unlikely coincidences in any fiction I've read. The coincidences are very hard to swallow on their own, but together they make the whole thing untenable. It's a pity, because the story is well executed and this would be a decent novel without them, and in my opinion, might have worked with only one of them. Cannot recommend this.

This my third Jefferson Farjeon novel, the other two being Thirteen Guest and The Z Murders, and this was a bit of a letdown. I was really enjoying it until the last 40 or 50 pages, when we had a very dreary and dull diary extract, which flew in the face of the atmosphere and breezy storytelling of the previous 200 pages. Good plot, interesting characters and a slightly disappointing denouement.

Would have liked to go 4.5 stars. The most complex and multi-layered of the excellent Poe and Bradshaw series, this one is so full of misdirection and hidden depths it reached a new level of delight for me. Compulsively readable, clever and knowledgeable without being smug and condescending, it manages to baffle and enlighten in rapid succession. My favourite of the Craven books so far. Highly recommended.