Joseph Zizza

Entertaining but doesn't say anything new

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.

Quite entertaining, but lacking a crime, the payoff is rather an anti-climax. For completists and big HM fans only.

Despite a few very dated references and language (the n-word appears and a central character is referred to as the cripple), this is a classic Nero Wolfe novel with a few unusual elements which make it stand out.

I am a big Philip Dick fan. I think Man in the High Castle, Ubik and Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch are among the greatest science fiction novels. This book, in common with VALIS and Divine Invasion, is evidence of a mind that is disintegrating. It starts off promisingly, but soon degenerates into a paranoid fantasy that is part political, part religious and part science fiction. By halfway I'd started becoming disillusioned and it was downhill from there. Sad to see, as his career height was magic.

Clever, well-plotted and delivered in an unusual way that facilitates quick reading and build the suspense. I enjoyed this start to finish, with the minor quibble that occasionally realism lead to repetition, which is to say the words of one character were were predictable and uninteresting, which made for a believable character but the odd dull passage. The format was unusual, though not revolutionary and enabled the reader to come to their own conclusions. A lot of fun.

Better than I was expecting, as it's post-war Carr. Good characters and lots of intrigue and misdirection, plus the atmosphere that Carr is so good at. And the usual end of book explanation of all the things that didn't make sense earlier on. (It should be noted that the term “hysteria” is used freely in this explanation. It is clearly dated, as this term is only used as a medical diagnosis in primitive and anti-female contexts. But if you substitute “histrionic personality disorder”, it all makes sense.) Certainly not on the level of his best work in the 1930's but worthy of a read.

For a novel based on two wildly improbable coincidences, this sustains interest pretty well over nearly 700 pages. Like her first novel, In The Woods, French draws you into the story, and what begins as an investigation becomes a forensic examination of relationships and their dynamics. By a third of the way in, I'd forgotten this was a murder investigation. It's quite a skill, but the appeal is different from a more typical thriller. The suspense and whodunnit elements take a backseat to the interpersonal details of interactions at a granular level. Not for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

I was a bit wary of this because of its popularity, but it surprised me. It's heavily indebted to Lord of the Rings (intentionally, from what I read), but it's more complex and layered than the Amazon Prime series. There's some actual character development and the differences from the show are all in the book's favour. I will continue with this series and see how it goes. Surprisingly good and very readable.

I loved this. Mandel has erased the lines between literature and genre fiction and used the post-apocalyptic sf staple to make observations about how we live and relate to each other in ways that catch the reader by surprise due to the unfamiliar setting. I would have liked to give it 4.5 stars. Entertaining, enjoyable, gripping, disturbing, heartbreaking and occasionally funny. This is what I read for: finding a book like this. Will be reading more of her work. Delightful

Pleasant and diverting, but the mystery, such as it is, is unsatisfactory, and Miss Marple is much more an observer than an amateur detective. Certainly a minor novel, and though I didn't dislike it, I didn't find it satisfying.

Unusual for the crime being committed in Wolfe's home, which produces some odd behaviour from the fat detective. I enjoy these Nero Wolfe novels. Some are less good than others but they're never bad.This is certainly not in the top rank, but it's still fun.

Clever plot, but tedious detail causes the plot to move at a glacial pace. And the humour was no doubt funny in 1923, but isn't 98 years later. Wimsey's mode of speech is ludicrous, losing ending “g”'s like an Irishman and sprinkling “don't you know” and “what?” at the end of half his sentences. This is in addition to the casual racism of “a bit of Tar-baby in his background” and a “decent enough Jew”. Very very dated and not for me. No Lord Peter Wimsey in my future.

Typically convoluted and labyrinthine Goddard plot, but this time it wore me out. Before I got to the revelations and “surprises” I was tired of all the deception and lying and dark secrets of the past. I may have read my last Goddard.

When Lee Child starting writing the Reacher books with his brother Andrew, it seemed clear he was looking to retire with his millions and let his brother take over the family business. It's not going so well. The last book, The Sentinel, was mediocre, but in this one Lee has ceded more control to Andrew, and the results are distinctly inferior. More a sterile techno-thriller than a Reacher novel, this one has him using mobile phones, working with the government and generally doing Bond-like things. The plot is very convoluted and the detail serves to slow and dull the suspense and tension rather than ratchet it up. The surrounding characters are cardboard cutouts; the novel is empty of personality and I was barely able to finish it. Sad to say, but this series appears to have run out of gas, and the driver doesn't seem to know where the service station is.

I loved it. Every incomprehensible incident, every strange and slightly familiar event. It felt like part thriller (pace and suspense) and part literary memoir and part meditation on loneliness and the difficulty of connecting with other people. A pleasure, and more Mandel in my future.

Not the best Nero Wolfe novel but a decent one. Most, I have found, have something to distinguish them from the others, often something that Wolfe is forced to or decides to do that is unusual for him. Archie gets a bit annoyed with Wolfe in this one, and that is momentarily amusing, but the plot is thin and a little pat.

Both smug and tedious. I don't think I'll be reading any more about the bizarre Mrs Bradley.

Not the best Carr or even the best Fell, but I had no trouble maintaining interest through this “Impossible” murder mystery from 1940. Some of the situations call uncomfortable attention to the moral and scientific attitudes of eighty years ago, but it holds up pretty well if you can put on the mindset of the time when reading. I've read most of the Carr novels with Gideon Fell, and find the Henry Merrivale novels too full of “comedy” for my taste. Having burned through most of Christie and Sayers and lots of Berkeley and all of Tey, I'm kind of down to lesser known Golden Age, so perhaps I give this one a bit of a pass, as it's a reminder of better books.

I've read over a dozen of Slaughter's books and I am a big fan. I'm not crazy about this one. It was deeply unpleasant, and the exhaustive detail of unspeakable acts is no fun to read. I also think it lacked the pace and drive of her other books.

Enjoyable, if a tad over-scientific. I didn't enjoy it as much as other Crichton novels I've read, I think because his story-telling skills weren't highly developed at this point. I didn't dislike it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

I have enjoyed several of Ellery Queen's novels (Ross is another pseudonym), but this one was terrible. Written–or more accurately, overwritten–in a morbidly melodramatic and pretentious prose, hobbled by both a lack of pace and crippling lack of credibility, its one redeeming feature is a closely reasoned explanation of the logic of the deduction of the killer's identity. The story is narrated by the daughter of a retired NYC police inspector, and it serves as a clear demonstration of the author's lack of understanding of women, while trying to ascribe deductive powers to her. Drury Lane is absent for much of the book, drafted in in the last quarter to supply an embarrassingly incredible soliloquy to an execution chamber in a prison. Really bad, and it pains me to say so. But it is truly awful.

Ol' Reliable Rex Stout delivers again. great plot, clever crime, enjoyable unraveling and fun during the whole process. The Nero Wolfe mysteries are perhaps the most reliably entertaining mysteries of all, as I've never encountered a dud. There may be one, but I've not read it yet. So I will continue to read them.

Clever, with a well-developed and carefully created atmosphere. Gets progressively more suspenseful. There are a few elements I'm not convinced by, but I enjoyed reading it, so quibbles after the fact seem churlish.

Very interesting premise, and it works for much of the time. I found myself alternating between being gripped for a section, then bored to tears for a section. Ultimately, I would say it was a noble but failed experiment, not quite able to sustain interest, despite constantly changing timeframe and focus. But I'll watch out for Abigail Dean's next effort.