Crime Books > A Crime Books

A dull and uninvolving read.

Advantages: Very few redeeming qualities. The epilogue is the best part of the book.
Disadvantages: Poor writing, uninteresting characters.

...it bluntly: the characters are two-dimensional, and by the end of the novel I honestly couldn't care for the fate of our soulless heroines nor the villains; the writing is clumsy and very basic, and the way that Sheldon addresses and deals with sex in the novel is partly hilarious, and a little bit creepy in the way it is reminiscent of a teenager's sexual fantasies. The pacing of the novel however, is decent. Chapters are short and all end with ...

Bong-Bong 13.06.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Sidney Sheldon

A prequel to The Da Vinci Code ..

Advantages: A super suspenseful thriller
Disadvantages: Very violent and graphic

...51 languages world wide. Angels and Demons is the prequel to The Da Vinci Code telling us the story of Symbologist Robert Langdon's adventures in the Vatican city one year before his fateful visit to the Louvre in Paris ( in Da Vinci Code ) In Dan Brown's words ' Angels and Demons is the novel in which i first created the character of Robert Langdon and indulged his passion for Art, Symbology, Codes, Secret Societies and the gray area between the ...
...The Story of Angels and Demons The story begins with Robert Langdon the world renowned Harvard based Symbologist summoned by Maximilan Kohler, director general of CERN, the swiss research facilty to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a brutally murdered Brilliant Physicist Leonardo Vetra, who was also a catholic priest. what Robert Langdon discovers is unimaginable. He is plunged straight into the deadly world of vendetta against the ...

kiran8 14.08.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Angels and Demons - Dan Brown

Rebus proves himself right, again!

Advantages: Great storyline, Rankin shows his class again
Disadvantages: None, except you are best reading the other 13 books first!

...However, I do still have a review to write and if I happen to jump ahead of the known plot then I apologise! For those of you who have no knowledge of the John Rebus series by Ian Rankin, here is a brief history. Ian Rankin thought up the idea of John Rebus whilst at university in 1985. Rebus himself was born in 1947 in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. He had a troubled childhood with his mum dying young, and joined the army after leaving ...
...soldiers mind and was offered a route out with the Lothian and Borders police. This is where the series of books picks Rebus up, and during the early books he still ahs contact with his wife and daughter. However as the series plays on, Rebus becomes a loner who is interested in only one thing - his work. Rankin often introduces characters into the series who could become Rebus' genuine friends, only for them to be killed or disappear from his life ...

martin0201 05.01.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of A Question of Blood - Ian Rankin

More to this than meets the eye

Advantages: Multi layered offering from Queen of Crime
Disadvantages: Murder in a cosy world

...Mead, is enjoying a stay at the old fashioned but so respectable Bertram's hotel in London. If part of the attraction of Bertram's is that it seems to have remained unchanged since before the war, even the manager admits that this is an illusion sustained for the benefit of American tourists. While accidentally witnessing a secret liaison between a young heiress and a racing champion, Miss Marple is also concerned about the disappearance of an absent ...
...at work. Somewhere a criminal mastergang is planning ever more daring raids, and it is up to Chief-Inspector Fred Day - 'Father' - to unearth them. The world is changing, and even the Beatles are namechecked in this classic Christie. It was dramatised by the BBC in the series starring Joan Hickson. Published in 1965, it is slightly unusual in that it features a female action hero - all cheekbones and daring exploits. As Miss Marple herself acknowledges, ...

aspebbles 10.10.2005 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of At Bertram's Hotel - Agatha Christie

You can't hide from the past

Advantages: Easy to read
Disadvantages: Weak characters, an over complicated past

I was simply browsing for a book in the library when I came across A Stain on the Silence, and being a "judge a book by its cover" sort of girl, this seemed right up my street; Simple, a bit sinister looking, and definitely intriguing! I have not heard of the author, Andrew Taylor, but a quick look on the inside cover indicates that he is a prolific author, with many titles under his belt. A Stain on the Silence tells the story of James. He was barely ...
...and James is settled with a wife, a nice home and a good job when Lily reappears in his life along with a daughter, Kate, who is apparently the result of their affair. Lily, although imminently dying of cancer brings all sorts of troubles to James' door digging up a past which he would rather remain buried, and he knows that even though the past has continually haunted him over the years, it is time to face it and discover what truly happened all ...

chilcott1 23.11.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of A Stain on the Silence - Andrew Taylor