FEATURED AUTHOR - D. Lynn Robinson is a mom of five and has been writing fiction all her life, and publishing novels since 2019. A lover of the outdoors, she enjoys hiking, swimming, and warm sandy beaches. When she’s not in the water, you can find her horseback riding with her husband Joe on one of the many trails Idaho has to offer. The Last Indigo and the Beast of Epicerra is her first fantasy chapter book, and a project deeply important to her. She believes that great stories have the power to enrich lives…
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Recent comments: User reviews
But in some cases you can see the solution too early.
The narrative is dry, the tone is monotonously grave.
The characters are sketchy and the plots are always too straightforward, the detective never knows mistakes or doubts.
common places of the genre.
What makes it worse is that the criminal is almost always the most of the suspects, save the one proposed by the inept police detective, and if he
isn't, then that's someone barely mentioned or barely defined, which is
the worst possible solution.
The detective is clearly a Sherlock Holmes emulator, but his Scotland Yard opponents are incredibly dumb, so they don't make him seem more clever, but just like someone with normal brain functions.
The strong point of the book is a relatively fast narrative, except the
first pages. But once you get through them, the reading is acceptably
pleasant. Also the ambiences and situations have some colour in them.
Curiously enough, neither did age the movie based on another Quatermain novel, The mines of King Solomon.
Some may see its hunting and war episodes as ecologically and human-rigths criminal but if you pay attention, you'll note that the author doesn't make an apology for the gratuitous killing, and if you eat the meat from cows slaughtered in the slaughter-house, what is the difference with killing an animal to feed hungry expeditioners?
Haggard is clearly a must-read classic unjustly overshadowed by Jules Vernes, a writer of a very similar approach to these topics though ornamented with an exaggerated mysterious/esoteric aura.
Fast-paced, with good twists and turns, an unusual criminal scheme and a little romance. It won't keep you awake in the night but it's... nice.
politician aided by a corrupt union leader set to destroy his political
rival.
So solid and slow is narrative that it leaves you indifferent or, in the
best case, yawning.
There is also a mild satyre of provintial gossiping ladies, all very
traditional and not too amusing.
Add to this two very, very sweet romances very, very sweetly narrated.
Old times social criticism of the corrupt unions with too much "poetic"
rhetorical dissertations. You can't disagree with it but you've already
seen too much of the same and better done.
Obviously, mistakenly included in Mystery/Detective.
The narrative gets your attention promptly and has its twists and turns well administered, I needed all my willpower to put down the book to go to sleep or to work. Its intensity decreases a little in the "survivalist" chapters but only briefly.
The only pages that seem dated, but amusingly so, are the reflexions on the character and behaviour of men and women. But they also offer an interesting testimony on the shift (or slide) of our sensibilities.
I haven't read the previous Dr. Nikola episodes but after reading this novel, I'm not much inclined to meet that good doctor again.
The writing is pleasant but it doesn't give you thrills or make you smile.
You spend two or three passable hours and the next day you won't remember that you did.
Besides a nicely picturesque plot, you find curious sketches of "European superstition" of the monarchy: sympathetic portraits of its representatives as well as an almost supernatural awe they produce.
The narrative is elegant and fast paced, with interesting descriptive digressions from a very knowledgeable author.
The luxurious ambiences and the singular personages that populate them make the reading a highly enjoyable experience.
what he achieved is to show at least one of the reasons of Doyle's
superiority: Watson isn't as observing as Holmes but he is equally clever.
The Kirk's assistant, Bat, is shockingly dumb, bordering on retarded.
The investigator's police rival is more of the same. As for the
investigator, he also doesn't seem too bright, just goes through logical
motions, none of them surprising or spectacular: in the kingdom of the
blind, the one-eyed man is king.
All the rest is very, very pulp, a cheap, little credible and strenous
plot, cartoonish characters and a very weak sense of humour.
The only curious point to be found is a mention of "hordes of East
Europeans" crowding the bad neighbourhoods.