M.E.S

Slow burn, yes, but…

Revisado: 08-29-23

Many reviewers call this a slow burn and it certainly is that. But I’m not sure a story as slow burning as this one is best suited to audio. I feel like there are lingering moments suggesting nuances that I’m missing. Even several hours in, I continue to become distracted and have to backtrack to catch up, only to get distracted again by some baffling not-enough-said dialog. I suspect this story would be better read as a physical book. There are some memorable passages about the bleak beauty of the landscape, and the isolation of the family makes me think of classic stories of the American West. Even so, I’ve still got five hours to go here and I’m not really looking forward to it. Unlike many reviewers, I don’t have a problem with the narrator’s accent. He reads well, although I would agree with those who say he doesn’t provide quite enough distinction among the characters.

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Good plot; same old anti-press cliches

Revisado: 08-25-23

Scottish setting is intriguing. The writer does a good job of twisting the familiar and famous Loch Ness into a sinister scene of crime. My main complaint here is the constant and, by now, very tired nagging about the “parasites” in the press. Do all UK thriller writers follow the same manual? Just once I’d like to pick up a UK police procedural and read something that isn’t a full-on dump on all journalists. Would go a long way to persuading me the writer isn’t being lazy on the details.

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Terrible reader; not the best Lovesey story

Revisado: 05-07-16

I'm guessing -- I'm hoping -- it was only that Simon Prebble was committed to another project for them to have brought in Clive Anderson to read this. Please make it a temporary replacement. Anderson, flat and painfully slow and slurry, can't measure up to Prebble's crisp voice work in the other Diamond novels. Dialogue exchanges here feel like walking against a current; too many pauses and weird intonations. Anderson is especially bad with women. One in particular, as another reviewer noted, he reads with an inexplicably low drawl, yet she is written to be a witty, savvy Irishwoman--she should have a bright, quick way of speaking. I found myself dreading it every time that character wandered back into the story.
As for the story, it needed an editor. There are several spots in the narrative where information is needlessly repeated. For example, we are told four or five times that top musicians are able to play priceless instruments because they get them on long-term loan from wealthy benefactors. I noticed several repetitions of certain information, but I can't list them without revealing too much of the mystery. There are other flaws in the storytelling. At one point, Diamond confronts a character with a "oh you know about that, do you?" when only a few chapters earlier Diamond was present when the character learned the fact. Some threads started at the top of the novel dangle neglected at the end. None of these are deal-breakers, but together they're indicative of sloppy writing in what should be a tight detective story. It's atypical of Lovesey, who is usually more careful. He was off his game here.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

It just isn't that good

Revisado: 04-24-15

Very slow moving for a police procedural. Considering it involves the abduction of a child -- a judge's child, at that -- the story shuffles along aimlessly, with many, many digressions, and with the investigator offering numerous theories and guesses, which do not seem to be based on the available evidence. Characters often act in bizarre, unbelievable ways: Would a woman who is desperate over her missing child be planning a party that she hopes will end in a spouse-swapping sex romp -- with the lead investigator? Stuff like that is just thrown in, as if perfectly expected and ordinary. I couldn't decide whether Freeling was doing it because readers of the mid-1970s, when he was writing, expected the French to be into "free" sex, or to keep us artificially interested in a story he had lost track of himself.

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Funny and entertaining

Revisado: 03-21-15

The puzzle is straight-forward but the characters are very appealing. The thief-writer's friendship with his agent is especially engaging. Some very funny descriptions and situations.

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Too many cliches

Revisado: 03-11-15

Nice performance by Kristen Bell.
Not a very well written book, though. Many plot points seem as stale as the fetid beer dregs in the bottles littering the streets of Neptune after Spring Break. One of the worst is the dumb-as-rocks sheriff, a classic of bad pulp fiction, but even this guy wouldn't be stupid enough to fail to check out a chief suspect's alibi. The machoer-than-thou drug cartel boys are tired stereotypes bordering on offensive.
Still, Veronica remains appealing and I found myself rooting for her in spite of the writing. She deserves something better than a story that feels like a first-draft TV script.

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Charming but lightweight.

Revisado: 02-17-15

The story about cricket was just... Wow, way too much cricket. No more cricket stories, for God's sake. Otherwise fine.

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Excellent thriller

Revisado: 01-16-15

Beautifully written, well fleshed out characters. An almost perfect study of the unreliable narrator. I felt the clues to the killer were telegraphed early on, but I read an inordinate number of thrillers and mysteries, so I'm hard to fool. There is a nice twist in the end I didn't see coming.

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Beautifully written

Revisado: 03-05-14

I can't believe I hadn't read this until now. Charles Portis writes in a way that would make taxes or legislative bills fascinating. His dialogue, settings, characters -- especially his characters -- ring absolutely true. Is there anyone more appealing in fiction than the brave, formidable Mattie Ross? The film versions just make her feisty, which is nice, but she is so much wiser and morally complex than the child she appears to be. The Cohen Bros. did a very good job with this story; the John Wayne version seems a cartoon set against the real narrative. Neither movie does True Grit justice. You miss all those wonderful, expertly chosen words. And who knew Donna Tartt, a fine novelist herself, had such an engaging, Southern reading style? Really, please, buy this immediately and listen to it.

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Scrappy heroine, pleasingly complex mystery

Revisado: 03-05-14

Well written and crafted thriller, which uses the classic chestnut of the remote village, with residents who distrust nosy outsiders, to great effect. You think this is going to be an old-fashioned horror, with restless ghosts and forbidden, pagan rites still practiced by the weird locals. In fact, it's a modern, psychological drama, its twists attributable to very human fears and desires. Some of the crimes may be too modern for certain listeners: If you are bothered by stories that involve hurting children or torture, be aware that this narrative takes a few dark turns. Nothing overly graphic, but it does go there, if not all the way there.
There are two mysteries here, one historical, one contemporary, each with its related protagonist, a compassionate Spanish ex-priest and a scrappy, Australian mathematician named Samantha Flood. Sam Flood is almost worth the price of admission alone -- she's that appealing.
Great reading by Gordon Griffin, who differentiates the many characters with vocal distinctions and quirks. I had no trouble keeping the large cast straight.
My only complaint is that the epilogue, while intriguing, ties up the threads too neatly. Still, the rest of the story is so good that I'm willing to forgive Reginald Hill for this over-zealous bit of plot writing.

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