kubooks's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
sabregirl's review against another edition
5.0
I'm not a big mystery reader because I hate waiting until the end to find out things. This as no different, which explains why I read the last 100 or so pages in two days. It does take a while to get into, there is a lot of backstory that they gloss over. Which is disappointing, but looks like it's going to be covered in the second book. A lot of dialogue was vague and hard to understand. I think a lot of the book was supposed to be like that but sometimes it didn't work out. The twist at the end I saw coming which was disappointing but still enjoyable.
It took me a while to like Elena. She was awfully naive, especially for someone who has already gone through a World War and a lot in her life. She got better as the book went on but not a lot. I want to read the second book but if she's the same way especially for what she's doing it'll ruin the book series for me.
It took me a while to like Elena. She was awfully naive, especially for someone who has already gone through a World War and a lot in her life. She got better as the book went on but not a lot. I want to read the second book but if she's the same way especially for what she's doing it'll ruin the book series for me.
tyrshand's review
3.0
I used to read a lot of Anne Perry’s mysteries — I quite lived Charlotte Pitt. However, apparently I’m not as keen on Perry’s spy thrillers. I just could not get too interested in Elena’s flopping into trouble because she’s hanging around with one dude or another. It is quite lucky for her that so many men, for reasons of their own, helped her out of scrape after scrape. Often to their detriment.
I’m not too sure why the rest of her family had so much page-time as they were pretty unhelpful and divorced from much of the main plot. I don’t think we really needed to know as much about them as we did. If anything, their scenes seemed to be about being the moral right. Like, yay, I do want reads with acceptance of diversity! However, it seemed a bit disingenuous to have the Brits in the story be so “why those awful Germans and their cruel views on Gypsies, Jews, and homosexuals!” as if that was just Nazi stuff and not, you know, pretty common. The British, after all, put their own extremely valuable asset, Alan Turing, through hell for being gay not long after this book is set. So yeah, it’s cool to have the Standishes be so accepting, but make sure it doesn’t appear that everyone except the Nazis were so very noble.
I’m not too sure why the rest of her family had so much page-time as they were pretty unhelpful and divorced from much of the main plot. I don’t think we really needed to know as much about them as we did. If anything, their scenes seemed to be about being the moral right. Like, yay, I do want reads with acceptance of diversity! However, it seemed a bit disingenuous to have the Brits in the story be so “why those awful Germans and their cruel views on Gypsies, Jews, and homosexuals!” as if that was just Nazi stuff and not, you know, pretty common. The British, after all, put their own extremely valuable asset, Alan Turing, through hell for being gay not long after this book is set. So yeah, it’s cool to have the Standishes be so accepting, but make sure it doesn’t appear that everyone except the Nazis were so very noble.
charityjohnson's review against another edition
2.0
This began with such promise--it was more plot driven than many of hers. Unfortunately the plot had holes. Limitations. I'm willing to suspend my belief, but I can go only so far. I was sad that she didn't write a strong book here.
nvblue's review against another edition
1.0
I am not a reader of much historical fiction; it largely leaves a bad taste in my mouth. However, my book club picked Death in Focus and I was intrigued. It looked like a decent plot written by a well-known author; however, my meager expectations were dashed into smithereens by the pathetic absurdities of this book. The author seems to have confused intrigue with coincidence, because our main character, Elena, (if she can be called a character, she has about as much development and definition as finely ground flour left scattered over the counter), has the unfortunate luck to accidentally date a foreign spy, she then has the unfortunate luck to become infatuated with an MI6 agent, then she has the unfortunate luck of being framed, etc etc. Additionally, her grandfather and father just happen to have been very high up in the foreign office and MI6, of course, that has minimal bearing on the plot. She just happens to know the diplomat the Berlin office. She just happens to run into an American journalist who happens to know people that she can stay with. I digress.
Can we talk about the historicity of the book? Perry tries to create the ambiance of the interwar years, and the British reluctance to engage negatively with Germany. Her characters and their reasons for wanting to avoid war tend to be horridly flat, boring, repetitive, and non-compelling. With as much extraneous time as the author dedicates to theme of ‘Never Again’ she should have been able to develop a convincing or compelling argument. This did not occur.
This might just be a personal qualm, but the author had the very bad taste to include Winston Churchill has a side character. It was entirely unnecessary and poor in execution. (Do we really think WC would have just grunted in conversation, rather than making use of his verbose powers?)
The book is set in 1933, the year that Hitler came to power, yet we already have talk of Jews being rounded into concentration camps. The Nazis did start the concentration camp program in 1933, but it was limited largely to political opponents and on a very small scale. It wasn’t until several years later, around 1938, that the program really took off. So that is absurd. Additionally, some senior members of Elena’s coincidentally well-connected family are very supportive of homosexuals, and that is simply ahistorical (Insert Alan Turing).
The laughability of the plot becomes more apparent when you realize that the entire purpose of Elena’s journey to Berlin could have been avoided by the use of cipher or diplomatic communique. The book is set in 1933 not 1890, Ian Newton should have known that it was ridiculous that MI6 would contact him that he needed to go to Berlin to inform the diplomat to avoid an assassination, when MI6 could have easily contacted the embassy through established channels. The plot holes are so big, you forget that this book has a plot.
If it wasn’t for the fact that this was a book club pick, I would have set this down by chapter three.
Can we talk about the historicity of the book? Perry tries to create the ambiance of the interwar years, and the British reluctance to engage negatively with Germany. Her characters and their reasons for wanting to avoid war tend to be horridly flat, boring, repetitive, and non-compelling. With as much extraneous time as the author dedicates to theme of ‘Never Again’ she should have been able to develop a convincing or compelling argument. This did not occur.
This might just be a personal qualm, but the author had the very bad taste to include Winston Churchill has a side character. It was entirely unnecessary and poor in execution. (Do we really think WC would have just grunted in conversation, rather than making use of his verbose powers?)
The book is set in 1933, the year that Hitler came to power, yet we already have talk of Jews being rounded into concentration camps. The Nazis did start the concentration camp program in 1933, but it was limited largely to political opponents and on a very small scale. It wasn’t until several years later, around 1938, that the program really took off. So that is absurd. Additionally, some senior members of Elena’s coincidentally well-connected family are very supportive of homosexuals, and that is simply ahistorical (Insert Alan Turing).
The laughability of the plot becomes more apparent when you realize that the entire purpose of Elena’s journey to Berlin could have been avoided by the use of cipher or diplomatic communique. The book is set in 1933 not 1890, Ian Newton should have known that it was ridiculous that MI6 would contact him that he needed to go to Berlin to inform the diplomat to avoid an assassination, when MI6 could have easily contacted the embassy through established channels. The plot holes are so big, you forget that this book has a plot.
If it wasn’t for the fact that this was a book club pick, I would have set this down by chapter three.
tuomosuominen's review against another edition
2.0
I’ve read quite a lot of historical crime and spy fiction set in pre–WWII Europe, Alan Furst and Philip Kerr being my favourite authors of the genre. Based on a New York Times crime fiction column a few months ago (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/books/review/crime-fiction-marilyn-stasio-martha-grimes-anne-perry.html), Anne Perry’s Death in Focus seemed perfect for me. I was, however, disappointed to find that Perry’s book features a not very plausible plot (with a what–were-they-smoking culmination), a parade of stereotypical Nazis and some characters whose role in the story remains unclear (like the heroine’s fiancé, who apparently was in intelligence but was charged with treason, or her sister, who just drops out of the story, or the completely unconvincing British ambassador’s daughter marrying a Gestapo officer). There are a number of standard-issue action sequences throughout the book, but they fail to make this a convincing spy story. Perry’s book lacks the depth of personalities, locations and historical context of Furst and Kerr. The author’s website says this was ”Elena Standish book 1”. I won’t be holding my breath for book 2.
PS I noticed Gretchen’s review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2803335547 and indeed, the name MI6 was not used pre-WWII (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Intelligence_Service). Very poor fact–checking by author and publisher.
PS I noticed Gretchen’s review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2803335547 and indeed, the name MI6 was not used pre-WWII (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Intelligence_Service). Very poor fact–checking by author and publisher.
paigewporter's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.75
eserafina42's review against another edition
4.0
Not quite what I expected - more suspense than mystery, though a lot of questions are answered at the end. Maybe a bit too dependent on coincidence - at least twice total strangers appear out of the blue to help the main character out of a tight spot. Hopefully, this is just setting the stage and she will be doing more acting rather than being acted upon in future installments. I did like the portrayal of the effect of WWI on so many people even almost 20 years later, and how it affected their view of what was happening in Germany in the 30s. Also, the description of the book burning was incredibly and horribly vivid.
emilyren's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5