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cooperca's review against another edition
5.0
A murder mystery with intrigue and a little humor. Nils Shapiro has a quick wit and a sharp tongue, I love him!
Called in to help the police solve a bizarre murder scene, Nils sets out to find who killed Maggie and why the killer left the crime scene looking like the inside of a vacuum bag. Nils irrelevant style had me envisioning Jim Rockford. The writing was sharp and created a vivid image of a cold Minnesota winter and brought to life a small town dealing with an unusual murder.
"Minneapolis had a brown Christmas. It happens, sometimes." p. 1
Called in to help the police solve a bizarre murder scene, Nils sets out to find who killed Maggie and why the killer left the crime scene looking like the inside of a vacuum bag. Nils irrelevant style had me envisioning Jim Rockford. The writing was sharp and created a vivid image of a cold Minnesota winter and brought to life a small town dealing with an unusual murder.
"Minneapolis had a brown Christmas. It happens, sometimes." p. 1
philscottmayes's review against another edition
4.0
Goldman takes readers on a twisty ride with [mostly] engaging characters. I made guesses along the way, but this whodunit wasn’t as predictable as I initially suspected. It also wasn’t entirely unpredictable, but murder mysteries rarely are. My primary criticism of the story is that one of the female supporting characters doesn’t really get a proper resolution (unless I somehow missed it). It didn’t ruin the story, but it felt vaguely incomplete to me. Other than that, bits of dialogue do suffer from a tangy hint of cheese, but it feels more like the characters themselves can be a little cheesy than that Goldman can’t write dialogue.
The audiobook narrator does as good a job as could be reasonably expected, digging deep to generate more than a dozen characters with distinct tones, deliveries, and accents, but it took me a while not to be distracted by a few of his female voices. It’s a problem all narrators face, and one that he tackled well enough. Overall, Gone to Dust [audiobook] was an enjoyable listen, and was well worth the $3.99 price of admission.
The audiobook narrator does as good a job as could be reasonably expected, digging deep to generate more than a dozen characters with distinct tones, deliveries, and accents, but it took me a while not to be distracted by a few of his female voices. It’s a problem all narrators face, and one that he tackled well enough. Overall, Gone to Dust [audiobook] was an enjoyable listen, and was well worth the $3.99 price of admission.
slhoward206's review against another edition
5.0
Great new series! Looking forward to reading his next 2 books! Love his characters sense of humor!
september128's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
toejben's review against another edition
2.0
Unrepentantly mediocre. Everything was just blah. To top it all off? Jam packed with the most Minnesota references the author could probably summon. Characters can just drink beer, you don't have to recognize that it's a local beer.
angela86's review against another edition
4.0
Thought this book was pretty good for a mystery book, the only thing that irked me was the many mentions of ladies BMI. It was often enough that it made me wonder about the author.
lmkramer507's review against another edition
5.0
Good detective story set in Minneapolis. Excellent descriptions of the locations made it so I could picture every turn of the car as this murder was investigated. I didn't guess the culprit, but the ending made sense. I wish there had been less profanity; otherwise a very enjoyable book.
lelia_t's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this book at first because I live in the Twin Cities and it was fun to have first-hand knowledge of the places Nils Shapiro is investigating, living, eating, drinking, driving, etc. Then I loved it because Nils Shapiro is hilarious. And finally I loved it because this is a good story - the mystery hooked me, the characters were engaging and Nils is fun to hang out with.
mease_moose's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0