bookcraft's review against another edition
5.0
I'm not at all sure how to describe this book. It's nothing like the murder mysteries I've been reading lately; the fact that the murder in question took place almost 60 years before the protagonist begins looking into it means that there isn't really a sense of urgency to his investigation, and that gives the whole narrative a freedom to be more of an immersive experience. The author takes advantage of that and does a beautiful job bringing the settings to life.
Usually, I'm very competitive about solving a mystery before the answer is revealed, but in this case — again, I suspect, because of the way it all unfolded like a beautiful origami flower unfolding — I was content to follow along and see where the protagonist's intuition took him. I couldn't help having my own ideas, of course, and they ended up being very much in line with the narrative, but I didn't feel like solving the puzzle was the entire point of the exercise, the way I often do with mystery novels. There was one well-done twist toward the end, though, that completely blindsided me.
Usually, I'm very competitive about solving a mystery before the answer is revealed, but in this case — again, I suspect, because of the way it all unfolded like a beautiful origami flower unfolding — I was content to follow along and see where the protagonist's intuition took him. I couldn't help having my own ideas, of course, and they ended up being very much in line with the narrative, but I didn't feel like solving the puzzle was the entire point of the exercise, the way I often do with mystery novels. There was one well-done twist toward the end, though, that completely blindsided me.
nickie184's review against another edition
1.0
Let me start by saying how much I have enjoyed all of the Inspector Banks mysteries. When it comes to English police procedurals, Peter Robinson is tops in my book (haha). However, I just did not like this story. Too many snide remarks about California, a totally unbelievable plot, and I really did not like out main character.
bgg616's review against another edition
4.0
I'd give this book 4 1/2 stars. I was intrigued until the end. This is a departure from Peter Robinson's Detective Banks series, but even better. The main character Chris Lowndes moves back to England from Hollywood where he has worked as a movie soundtrack composer. Like the Banks books, music is central to the story and Robinson is detailed about the music the main character listens to, and why. Lowndes becomes intrigued with the story of a murder that occurred in the house 60 years before and investigates. The ending is both satisfying and a surprise.
dannb's review against another edition
2.0
IF you are interested in a high level of detail about the food and wine selections of the main character, you may like this book quite a bit; however, the story is a search that digs deep into a 50+ year death, but the modern characters are superficial...it was ok.
shelfimprovement's review against another edition
2.0
I'm giving this one up after the self-imposed 100 pages rule. It's moving too slowly, I'm not getting a sense of the main character, and there seems to be zero motivation for his actions. Also, he's too damn wordy when it comes to things like the movie the character decides to watch to remedy his insomnia. It's just not working for me.
joehartman's review against another edition
2.0
This is a difficult book to review, as I can see that the author has a great deal of talent, however, this book is easily a hundred pages too long. Around page fifty the ponderous details started to derail my interest, and I considered putting it down. What the protagonist ate, the friends he chatted with, his favorite musical pieces, the movies he watched... it's all in here, day by day by day. It really slows the story and brings any suspense to a halt.
The reason I kept with it? Im trying to turn over a new leaf and not desert books half way through, as I think it's becoming a bad habit of mine, but this was a slog. That said, there are some lovely passages especially regarding Grace, the object of our hero's obsession, and there are some really intriguing observations of human behavior, which lead me to believe some of his other works might be worth a try. At the moment, I'm a little too daunted by "Before The Poison" to try.
The reason I kept with it? Im trying to turn over a new leaf and not desert books half way through, as I think it's becoming a bad habit of mine, but this was a slog. That said, there are some lovely passages especially regarding Grace, the object of our hero's obsession, and there are some really intriguing observations of human behavior, which lead me to believe some of his other works might be worth a try. At the moment, I'm a little too daunted by "Before The Poison" to try.
bethnellvaccaro's review against another edition
2.0
I ordered this book without realizing it wasn't an Inspector Banks novel. I decided to give it a try anyway, and I wasn't thrilled. It took forever to get started and the main character's motivations just didn't make sense at first.
prof_shoff's review against another edition
4.0
Somewhat to my surprise, I really enjoyed this novel. Robinson manages to make an intriguing mystery out of nothing very mysterious. In the end, this is more of a character study than a mystery but there are certainly elements of suspense - and, of course, I appreciated the historical details.
chukg's review against another edition
4.0
Good, kind of like a cozy historical mystery. Lots of details about food, music etc -- two books in a row with classical music references mostly going over my head.