Sure and Certain Death (Francis Hancock Mysteries)
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""Impeccable mystery plotting, exotic and atmospheric."" --Guardian" on" After the Mourning
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having an undertaker as a detective is a wonderful idea, overcoming the problem faced by all fictional non-police detectives - how to account for one person encountering so many dead bodies!
However, this book never really comes to life - the author explains her characters rather than letting them reveal themselves to us, and they are all completely one-dimensional (the repressed religious spinister, the warm-hearted prostitute...yawn). As for the plot - well, it is simpy ridiculous.
Worst of all, this book is really badly written - clunky inelegant prose and actual grammatical errors. Barbara, you need someone to properly proofread your work.
However, this book never really comes to life - the author explains her characters rather than letting them reveal themselves to us, and they are all completely one-dimensional (the repressed religious spinister, the warm-hearted prostitute...yawn). As for the plot - well, it is simpy ridiculous.
Worst of all, this book is really badly written - clunky inelegant prose and actual grammatical errors. Barbara, you need someone to properly proofread your work.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Barbara Nadel's latest Hancock novel engrossed me more than any other she has written in the Hancock series. It focuses on an area a mere 20 minutes walk from where I live and the places she refers to a more than just similar. Taking in personal tragedy, humanity in the face of overwhelming odds and all entwined around past events from a cruel time that have raised their ghostly heads and led to the grisly slaughter of young women, which, reluctantly, Francis Hancock has become involved in, only this time the events are hitting him more personally than in the past as they involve his dear sister, Nancy. My Grandparents lived in East London in WW1 and WW2 and building on Barbara Nadel's descriptive account of the places in East London (East Ham, Forest Gate, Plashet)brings it chillingly to life. The setting encompasses all the horrors that the blitz brought to people in East London, and provides a backdrop of the unfolding events that will see the reader unable to put this book down for long. For Nadel fans, Sure and Certain Death is a must-read, as it is for historians of East London.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Francis Hancock is a middle-aged, half-English, half-Indian undertaker whose London "manor" is being systematically dismantled by Hitler's Luftwaffe in World War Two. Now horribly mutilated women are showing up in the rubble, and it is clear a madman is murdering them. The police are undermanned and overworked, and Hancock finds himself pressured via family connections to investigate.
Hancock has been severely traumatised by his experiences in the First World War, and he frequently exhibits odd behaviour, such as running around the streets at night when the bombs are falling. He makes an interesting detective, although personally I find the idea of a man who regularly has nightmares of severed heads persisting in a profession where he regularly comes into contact with dead people a touch unlikely.
The supporting cast are much less clearly defined. Mostly they are similarly dressed, similarly spoken, similarly aged females. Not to give too much away, that's one of the main points of the book, but still I found it quite hard work keeping track of them all. I'm not the only one - the author mixes them up at least once. She also describes Lascars as being "mostly Hindus" and yet in the very next sentence says they are "Christians to a man".
As a "whodunit" this novel doesn't work too well. The vagueness of the characterisation and the paucity of clues make it difficult for the reader to engage with Hancock's detection work, and the resolution is unmoving. As an exposition of social history it is much better, and there are great insights into mid-war life and attitudes.
Hancock has been severely traumatised by his experiences in the First World War, and he frequently exhibits odd behaviour, such as running around the streets at night when the bombs are falling. He makes an interesting detective, although personally I find the idea of a man who regularly has nightmares of severed heads persisting in a profession where he regularly comes into contact with dead people a touch unlikely.
The supporting cast are much less clearly defined. Mostly they are similarly dressed, similarly spoken, similarly aged females. Not to give too much away, that's one of the main points of the book, but still I found it quite hard work keeping track of them all. I'm not the only one - the author mixes them up at least once. She also describes Lascars as being "mostly Hindus" and yet in the very next sentence says they are "Christians to a man".
As a "whodunit" this novel doesn't work too well. The vagueness of the characterisation and the paucity of clues make it difficult for the reader to engage with Hancock's detection work, and the resolution is unmoving. As an exposition of social history it is much better, and there are great insights into mid-war life and attitudes.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Repetitive Cycle of Boring Storylines
After a promising start the author seemed to run out of a story. In fact I could have ripped out a hundred inside pages and still not missed anything. Read more
Published 23 days ago by C. Gordon
Rivetting read!
The last of the Hancock series and yet another great depiction of the period. More brutal murders in a story line that is gripping to the last page. Highly recommended.
Published 12 months ago by John Welberry
Not certain at all.
I'm a longtime fan of mystery novels and I think that Nadel is really original in creating Francis Hancock. The trouble for me is that I could never really believe in him. Read more
Published on 2 April 2010 by Telboy
Atrue successor
This was well up to the standard of the 3 previous books in this series. Francis Hancock is an antihero you can really relate to along with his fears during WWII
Published on 9 Feb 2010 by Bookaholic
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