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Cradle Song (Hardcover)

by Robert Edric (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 480 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday & Co Inc. (1 Jul 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0385605749
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385605748
  • Product Dimensions: 24.3 x 15.9 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 719,712 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Literary Review

'Robert Edric's novel - his first in the crime field - is something substantial and distinctive.'


Sunday Telegraph

'Fine, skilfully written ... sensitive and disturbing.'
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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Superior writing - superior crime novel, 5 Jul 2004
By Mr. Stephen Edwards "se1955" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Cradle Song (Paperback)
The standard of writing here is a cut above the standard detective novel, but Mr Edric doesn't overcomplicate an excellent PI/police procedural, set in Hull. Leo Rivers, the PI is a low key and realistic creation, not the stereotypical Marlowe figure transported to Yorkshire. The police and the criminals are subtly divided in character, not "white hats and black hats". Apparently this is the first of a series of three, I'm looking forward to the next one.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Watch out for the 15th round, 16 Aug 2008
By T. Hewtson LE ROUX - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Cradle Song (Paperback)
When you pick up "Cradle Song" (the first of Robert Edric's "Song Cycle Trilogy" which leads through "Siren Song" to "Swan Song"), you instantly know that you are walking through a land of deception.

The first few pages report the critics from almost every major UK newspaper and periodical telling you that here is a master of the sleight of hand, of the intricately woven plot, one of the best and most under-rated writers in the English language.

So you start reading, and there is an unnerving dissonance between the text and the plaudits. For the first four hundred pages, you are presented with an entertaining US TV-style crime procedural import, skilfully adapted to the climate of the North-East coast of England, driven by massed high voltage dialogue where people would rather swear at each other than greet each other, and with moments where the sun really breaks through as he describes abandoned individuals, such as the retired DCI Sullivan beached in his shadow disgrace, and the pathetic child pornographer, Martin Roper, recapturing his summer play among the flats of a bleak Spurn Point.

Then, after four hundred pages (perhaps a little long to wait), you are in the hands of the author who in "The Book of the Heathen" made Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" infinitely darker. The pace picks up, and the details hit you from rock-solid foundations in the culmination of a brutal, seedy tale.

This is why Robert Edric is considered a master. Like a Cistercian monk, he sees the world and he doesn't blink.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars A great disappointment, 27 Jul 2008
By D. Maceoin "amantedofado" (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This is the first of Edric's books I have read, and almost certainly the last. It came very well recommended, both by Amazon reviewers and by reviewers for major papers and journals. That may, in part, be why I was so disappointed by it in the end. It was, I believe, praised far out of its league and made to seem a literary masterpiece when it is not. There is some fine writing, though not, perhaps, enough. But for the most part it is a very tedious, slow read, with a plot that drags and drags and at times goes so far up its own nether regions as to seem entirely forced. There is no pace, not at the start, and not by the end. It is monotone. We know next to nothing about the narrator (the private detective). He lacks all emotion or has such repressed emotions that they do not serve. Much of the writing consists of overlong, stretched dialogue between characters who never seem to like anybody, not even themselves. The overall mood is, in consequence, sombre lit through with antagonism. The narrator is or should be the protagonist, but in truth he can't be because he remains subservient to the police (who use him) and some criminals (who use him). By choosing to write a first-person narrative, Edric makes it difficult to handle a plot that is spread over several characters and places. He ends up using telephone conversations and other awkward devices in order to keep the narrator connected to the plot. I came away not liking it. The author clearly has talent, but I wonder if he is well suited to the crime novel.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, dark and different
Had previously only read Edric's 'Book of the Heathen' and 'Gathering the Water', and clearly he is a high class literary act. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Michael Brown

4.0 out of 5 stars convincing and well worth reading
I turned to this after having read a few of Edric's other novels and his writing did not disappoint me on this occasion either, maybe surprise me with the apparent ease and... Read more
Published 21 months ago by maple tree

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