Disappointing mystery novel. Starts out OK but by the end it becomes a bloated, convoluted, and repetitious mess. This book could have been a decent short story with some heavy pruning and editing.
A young lawyer's uncompromising adherence to his political beliefs during the French Revolution results in some unexpected transformations in his life. An amazing novel!
An excellent adventure tale of injustice and revenge. As in Captain Blood, be prepared for a long slog through excessive background development - but it's well worth the effort once the real story gets started.
Finding his appointment for employment unexpectedly cancelled, a young man accepts a secretarial position with a Duke in a small English seaside village and soon finds himself at the heart of an international conspiracy. A page turner with a nice level of suspicion and suspense throughout.
A wealthy and highly educated youhg heiress forms a relationship with a professional prize fighter, causing quite a turmoil in class-conscious English society. The book has some good moments but sometimes I wondered where the story was going - and how long it was going to take to get there.
At the conclusion (during Cashel's trial), there is a block of several pages of text which is out of sequence.
The brilliant French Dective Juve theorizes that a series of high profile robberies and murders are all the doing of one brilliant criminal - Fantomas. But can he prove it in a court of law? And before he even tries Juve must answer two additional questions. Does Fantomas even exist? And if so, how can he be located and captured?
PS - about the "hot wine salad" in the Saint-Anthony's Pig saloon. I don't speak French but a bit of googling tells me that "hot wine salad" is better translated as "bowl of warm wine". I don't know why this bothered me but the thought of these people enjoying hot wine salad would have seemed out of character.
A successful used car salesman turns his hand to the motion picture business with disastrous results. A rambling, boring, and sometimes disgusting tale. Unfortunately I cannot unread this book, but I look forward to forgetting it soon.
An L.A. cop in Dallas finds himself implicated in a violent crime spree. He soon finds that the only way to exonerate himself will be by hunting down and capturing the true criminals. Excellent crime pulp novel.
Some interesting detective cases, individual stories, loosely linked as if originally serialized.
Garth, a brilliant young detective, is a victim of unrequited love. The object of his affection is Nora, the chief inspector\'s daughter. Nora is an interesting, capable, and dangerous character and she has strong roles in the cases. The only downside of Nora\'s presence is that you must wade through long digressions describing how poor Garth is pining away for love and how concerned he is for Nora\'s safety.
This is a good read, but if Garth would go out and find himself a girlfriend and get on with his detecting, I could have given more than 3 stars.
bhold’s book reviews
At the conclusion (during Cashel's trial), there is a block of several pages of text which is out of sequence.
PS - about the "hot wine salad" in the Saint-Anthony's Pig saloon. I don't speak French but a bit of googling tells me that "hot wine salad" is better translated as "bowl of warm wine". I don't know why this bothered me but the thought of these people enjoying hot wine salad would have seemed out of character.
Garth, a brilliant young detective, is a victim of unrequited love. The object of his affection is Nora, the chief inspector\'s daughter. Nora is an interesting, capable, and dangerous character and she has strong roles in the cases. The only downside of Nora\'s presence is that you must wade through long digressions describing how poor Garth is pining away for love and how concerned he is for Nora\'s safety.
This is a good read, but if Garth would go out and find himself a girlfriend and get on with his detecting, I could have given more than 3 stars.