A review by barry_x
1222 by Anne Holt
2.0
MINOR SPOILERS BELOW
Well, that was a waste of time.
My last read was Jo Nesbo's 'Cockroaches' so another dose of Norwegian crime fiction was quite welcome. However, this was a deeply unsatisfying book.
So what was wrong with it;
- It's boring. Hardly anything happens. There are a couple of murders in a hotel cut off by snow and ice. I'd like to feel peril, a sense of being trapped, a wonder of who is next. Being in this hotel never felt remotely dangerous for the protagonist or the guests. What could have been terrifying was mundane.
- No sympathy for the victims. The victims are introduced quickly and bumped off quickly. They are uninteresting and not worth bothering with
- The principal character. I'm jumping in here on the 8th book of the series. I'm sure if you've followed the series you can easily identify with the lead character Hanne. I couldn't. She spends most of the book being rude and unapproachable to the other characters. She shows hardly any interest in the crime and is exceptionally reluctant to get involved. If she doesn't give a shit, why should I? Seriously, she's deeply dislikeable.
- A completely uninteresting and pointless subplot. There are secret, guarded guests in the hotel. They could be a red herring or an integral part to the plot. However they are completely incidental to the story, take up a lot of space and this strand could be completely left out of the book to be better. Waste of time reading all of that plot line.
- Agency. I could tell you who dies and then you can just read the second to last chapter where Hanne tells us all who did the crime. Seriously. You could do that. Most of the book is a waste of time
Really didn't enjoy this one.
Well, that was a waste of time.
My last read was Jo Nesbo's 'Cockroaches' so another dose of Norwegian crime fiction was quite welcome. However, this was a deeply unsatisfying book.
So what was wrong with it;
- It's boring. Hardly anything happens. There are a couple of murders in a hotel cut off by snow and ice. I'd like to feel peril, a sense of being trapped, a wonder of who is next. Being in this hotel never felt remotely dangerous for the protagonist or the guests. What could have been terrifying was mundane.
- No sympathy for the victims. The victims are introduced quickly and bumped off quickly. They are uninteresting and not worth bothering with
- The principal character. I'm jumping in here on the 8th book of the series. I'm sure if you've followed the series you can easily identify with the lead character Hanne. I couldn't. She spends most of the book being rude and unapproachable to the other characters. She shows hardly any interest in the crime and is exceptionally reluctant to get involved. If she doesn't give a shit, why should I? Seriously, she's deeply dislikeable.
- A completely uninteresting and pointless subplot. There are secret, guarded guests in the hotel. They could be a red herring or an integral part to the plot. However they are completely incidental to the story, take up a lot of space and this strand could be completely left out of the book to be better. Waste of time reading all of that plot line.
- Agency. I could tell you who dies and then you can just read the second to last chapter where Hanne tells us all who did the crime. Seriously. You could do that. Most of the book is a waste of time
Really didn't enjoy this one.