Reviews

The Wild Island by Antonia Fraser

blossyboots's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

tine47's review against another edition

3.0

When you pick up a book called Tartan Tragedy in which the heroine is called Jemima, I suppose you know exactly what you are getting. Cosy crime with a silly plot set in the Scotland of castles, kilts and murderous clans. Quite diverting though. A very light hearted read.

apechild's review against another edition

1.0

Tartan Tragedy. A tragedy indeed. I've read the first four chapters, got to page 36 and I hate it! Really not my thing and life is too short so I am quitting this book. It's actually an old murder series written in the 1970s... I thought it all sounded wierdly dated when I started reading it. The whole thing is a bit twee and not amazing. I couldn't care less why that guy's been killed. The Scots speak in a wierdly written Scottish dialect and it's all one step away from offering you a tin of shortbread. And the style and the main character has a taste of upper class snobbery and snooty-ness. Did I mention I haven't been enjoying this?!

icandothis_1's review against another edition

2.0

Read over a couple of days. Didn't find the main character that strong a character. She just seemed to drift through the story.

diannel_04's review against another edition

4.0

Jemima has dumped the loser from book one and is taking a holiday in the Highlands of Scotland. Upon arrival in Inverness she discovers that her landlord has died and she has arrived in time for his funeral. Suddenly she is mixed up with the Red Rose Society, a group bent on proving the Beauregards (Jemima's landlords) are the true heirs to the English throne through Bonnie Prince Charlie.

More bodies pile up but in the end things fall into place.

I really enjoy this series and will most certainly read more.

briarfairchild's review against another edition

2.0

Antonia Fraser trying to write a wild romance. It's not that successful, to be honest. Jemima, with her much-vaunted intelligence, once again displays a solid lack of logical thinking and generally a fairly dull intellect. None of the characters were especially engaging and the plot was rather dull.

barbarahowe's review

2.0

Disappointing. Weird mix of genres, and none of it very believable. The biggest disappointment was in the lead character, Jemima Shore. For someone who makes a living as an "investigator" (What does she investigate? No idea.) she was remarkably passive and incurious. There is no hint of what might make her an interesting television personality, other than being telegenic, and half-way through the book, she lost my sympathies completely.

She falls into bed with a married man, practically under his wife's nose, and exhibits no shame or regret the next time she encounters the wife.

.

The rest of the cast aren't much better, ranging from weird to deranged to dishonourable, and none of them seem very bright.

The heiress accuses her uncle of murder, then a few days later wanders along a cliff edge in the fog with him hunting for her. Not clever.

By the end, I was hoping the murderer would take out the whole lot.

margaretpinard's review

2.0

So...I loved the descriptions of the Wild Island, and the few cultural insights about Scots of the North. But this book definitely suffers from being written in 1978, when a woman could be assumed to fall for a man, any man, even a scoundrel she suspects, because he's the only likely character...SPOILER ALERT: I wasn't convinced the main character should have been so taken with her love interest that she would regret his loss, and I wasn't convinced that he was so taken with her that his wife would take action. Meh. Not sure if I'll try another Antonia Fraser. Maybe just to see if they're all in a similar vein. PS bad typos (pre-spell check reprint). Didn't bother keeping track.