- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd; Advance Copy edition (11 Aug 1997)
- ISBN-10: 0099435861
- ISBN-13: 978-0099435860
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 11.4 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,189,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Don't get me wrong, i'm addicted to Bonner's style, but this book lacked something which i felt the other two of her's that i have read (The Cruelty of Morning, A Moment of Madness) had. And i can't quite put my fingers on what it is.
The book is good, as is the solution and the actual mystery. But the characters are not as colourful as in some of her other books, and the book just not as bright and vivid. It did strike me as being a bit dull. I quite enjoyed it, yes, but not a lot. The characters arent really very interesting or compelling, and the plot moves at quite a slow pace.
If i were you, it probably is best to give this one a miss. She has written better books, and whilst this is by no means a bad one, it is not up to her other high standards.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Usage Errors and Implausible Plot/Characters
27 July 2011
Format:Paperback
This novel seemed promising at the start, but I was soon distracted by some fairly basic usage/spelling errors, the sort that would have me reaching for my red pen if my college-age students wrote them -- and that I was very surprised to see in a book from a mainstream publisher like Random House. For example, a character is described as "demurring" when it's clear from the context that she is not "demurring" at all, but is in fact agreeing. Another character is described as being "barely able to breath," and then we get a howler like "Richard was not in the slightest bit phased." Sorry, but this is not professional-level writing/editing.
Still, I might have been willing to overlook such stumbles if the plot were plausible or the characters believable. But they aren't. We're asked to accept significant coincidences, some incongruous love-at-first-sight, and a murderer's plan that wouldn't have worked in a thousand years.
Plus, some of the narrative attitudes toward domestic violence are disturbing: after being slapped by her angry lover, one character, Joyce, "was honest enough to reckon that she probably deserved it." When the lover later apologizes, Joyce says, "No, I asked for it." It seems clear from the text that the author agrees.
Add to these problems a rather clunky structure (in which we're often simply told things when we ought to be shown them), and you have a book that I probably would not have finished had I not been stuck on an eight-hour plane ride with no other reading material.
Still, I might have been willing to overlook such stumbles if the plot were plausible or the characters believable. But they aren't. We're asked to accept significant coincidences, some incongruous love-at-first-sight, and a murderer's plan that wouldn't have worked in a thousand years.
Plus, some of the narrative attitudes toward domestic violence are disturbing: after being slapped by her angry lover, one character, Joyce, "was honest enough to reckon that she probably deserved it." When the lover later apologizes, Joyce says, "No, I asked for it." It seems clear from the text that the author agrees.
Add to these problems a rather clunky structure (in which we're often simply told things when we ought to be shown them), and you have a book that I probably would not have finished had I not been stuck on an eight-hour plane ride with no other reading material.
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