Scan barcode
avey_sienna's review
5.0
Bought this book at my local charity shop, never heard of this series or author before,however, I am now obsessed and can’t wait to read the full series. The Harvest Man is full of suspense, gore, and such unique and developed characters. Parts had me so tense and I could not put it down.
smellbelle's review
4.0
Each time I read one of Grecian's Murder Squad books I devour it so quickly I'm sad it's over. With this one, and the Devil's Workshop, the third in the series, I was sad to see them end because they were so grotesque, and not at all full of happy endings.
I desperately want to know what happens next because our beloved hero Walter Day has been taken by the Ripper himself. I felt sick when I finished this, not knowing what has happened to him and thinking of his twin girls at home. I'll be waiting with baited breath for the next instalment, Grecian has well made sure of that.
However, I miss the tone that this series first had. My favourite of the series remains The Black Country. Everything was right with that book, and unfortunately, for me, Grecian hasn't been able to keep that same tone and feeling with the next two. Involving the Ripper was I think, both a masterstroke and a disaster. Grecian's desire to make the Ripper truly frightening and deranged has seen it take over the series, he was the subject of The Devil's Workshop, The Harvest Man and now the next instalment. I fear that when this issue is resolved, so much of what we love about these books will no longer be present.
To give credit where it is due, Grecian's Ripper is horrifying. Every time he appears in a scene my stomach twists in knots. Grecian's writing is magnificent, truly awesome in its descriptions and the scenes he creates are so vivid and fantastic. This is the reason it gets 4 stars from me, even though I have to admit that reading it wasn't a pleasant experience.
I will mourn for the characters I thought Day and Hammersmith were and I will wait, worried and anxious for Walter. Do hurry up Mr. Grecian, do hurry up indeed.
I desperately want to know what happens next because our beloved hero Walter Day has been taken by the Ripper himself. I felt sick when I finished this, not knowing what has happened to him and thinking of his twin girls at home. I'll be waiting with baited breath for the next instalment, Grecian has well made sure of that.
However, I miss the tone that this series first had. My favourite of the series remains The Black Country. Everything was right with that book, and unfortunately, for me, Grecian hasn't been able to keep that same tone and feeling with the next two. Involving the Ripper was I think, both a masterstroke and a disaster. Grecian's desire to make the Ripper truly frightening and deranged has seen it take over the series, he was the subject of The Devil's Workshop, The Harvest Man and now the next instalment. I fear that when this issue is resolved, so much of what we love about these books will no longer be present.
To give credit where it is due, Grecian's Ripper is horrifying. Every time he appears in a scene my stomach twists in knots. Grecian's writing is magnificent, truly awesome in its descriptions and the scenes he creates are so vivid and fantastic. This is the reason it gets 4 stars from me, even though I have to admit that reading it wasn't a pleasant experience.
I will mourn for the characters I thought Day and Hammersmith were and I will wait, worried and anxious for Walter. Do hurry up Mr. Grecian, do hurry up indeed.
si0bhan's review
4.0
Since reading The Devil’s Workshop last year I was excited for this Murder Squad book. With everything that happened in the third book in the series you knew great things were to come.
Sadly, despite how much I enjoyed this one, it wasn’t quite to the level of the other books in the series. For me, this book focused far too much on the personal lives of the characters and overlooked the thing I was really interested in – the complex crime that came about following the events in the last book.
It is wonderful build up for what is to come – the events that took place in the last fifty or so pages suggest the series is going to take a truly interesting turn and I cannot wait to see how things are resolved – but as a whole it felt, in part, like a filler book. I simply wish there had been more to it than the focus upon the personal lives (whilst I’m at it, I should probably point out that I felt as though things could have been made more extreme in that regard as well, as people seemed to brush the details of the prior book aside a bit more than I would have liked).
As a whole, it’s not my favourite book in the series yet it has left me more than curious about what is to come next.
Sadly, despite how much I enjoyed this one, it wasn’t quite to the level of the other books in the series. For me, this book focused far too much on the personal lives of the characters and overlooked the thing I was really interested in – the complex crime that came about following the events in the last book.
It is wonderful build up for what is to come – the events that took place in the last fifty or so pages suggest the series is going to take a truly interesting turn and I cannot wait to see how things are resolved – but as a whole it felt, in part, like a filler book. I simply wish there had been more to it than the focus upon the personal lives (whilst I’m at it, I should probably point out that I felt as though things could have been made more extreme in that regard as well, as people seemed to brush the details of the prior book aside a bit more than I would have liked).
As a whole, it’s not my favourite book in the series yet it has left me more than curious about what is to come next.
More...