(edit: Bonus points for the spotting the deliberate spelling mistake in the title ;) )
Anyone else read this (either before or after the author was revealed)?
I am a reasonable fan of JK Rowling - I've only read 2-3 of the Harry Potter series - but thought that they decent enough. Anyway, I was interested to see what other people who read this thought - the reviews on Amazon are pretty good but I was quite disappointed by it:
Very formulaic structure - investigate person A - spend two chapters speaking to them, tick them off. Investigate person B - spend two chapters speaking to them, tick them off - repeat until page 500. Characters once interviewed effectively disappear from the story never to be spoken to again.
Lots of stereotypes - the down on his luck maverick private detective, the young and keen attractive assistant, the gay fashion man, the burly police officer, the geeky computer wizard, the spoilt high society wives. They were pretty much cardboard cut-out 2D characters.
A very slow pace - by about page 200 I was wondering whether to give up or not - hardly anything had happened. It got better in the last third but could have done with chopping 100 pages off.
An ending which really doesn't make sense when you think about the killer and their motives. Bit of a spoiler to say any more, but the entire premise of the book seems undermined by the ending.
I did finish it, and it was diverting enough - after all I am a big fan of crime fiction - but I wouldn't think it was better than 3/5 - which might be decent enough for a new author I suppose, but seemed a bit too average for one of the best selling authors on the planet.
Anyone else read this (either before or after the author was revealed)?
I am a reasonable fan of JK Rowling - I've only read 2-3 of the Harry Potter series - but thought that they decent enough. Anyway, I was interested to see what other people who read this thought - the reviews on Amazon are pretty good but I was quite disappointed by it:
Very formulaic structure - investigate person A - spend two chapters speaking to them, tick them off. Investigate person B - spend two chapters speaking to them, tick them off - repeat until page 500. Characters once interviewed effectively disappear from the story never to be spoken to again.
Lots of stereotypes - the down on his luck maverick private detective, the young and keen attractive assistant, the gay fashion man, the burly police officer, the geeky computer wizard, the spoilt high society wives. They were pretty much cardboard cut-out 2D characters.
A very slow pace - by about page 200 I was wondering whether to give up or not - hardly anything had happened. It got better in the last third but could have done with chopping 100 pages off.
An ending which really doesn't make sense when you think about the killer and their motives. Bit of a spoiler to say any more, but the entire premise of the book seems undermined by the ending.
I did finish it, and it was diverting enough - after all I am a big fan of crime fiction - but I wouldn't think it was better than 3/5 - which might be decent enough for a new author I suppose, but seemed a bit too average for one of the best selling authors on the planet.
via JREF Forum http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=263508&goto=newpost
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