The book is flawed, it's against my code to give the highest marks, but it's been such a long time since I have read a book that was un-put-downable, it's so refreshing. There's an oddball partnership like Bryant and May, a touch of near-fantasy like Connie Willis, the intense character - driven plotting of Elizabeth George, mention of Sherlock Holmes and Aerosmith, and the author is a military historian (but also a man, so brace yourself for a whiff of horror-gore and bad sex, haha.) It's not set up for a sequel, and that doesn't seem to be the author's thing, but I was really sorry to part with these characters.

Having read Carr's previous work, especially The Alienist and The Italian Secretary, I was eager for his latest book. Unfortunately, I didn't get very far. Carr's seeming personal vendetta with current forensic practice overshadows any possible interest in the story. In addition, the hammering of this one issue, and everything else, is repeated ad nauseam. Uninteresting characters, and no excitement leaves this thriller unthrilling. It's not as bad as Killing Time, but not worth the attention it may get if you like some of his other novels.

I had to put this one down. The titillating crime details weren't enough to keep me reading this wordy wordy wordy book narrated by a generally unlikable character. Mr. Carr is (rightly) disturbed by the cozy relationship between prosecutors and forensic scientists and he uses his protagonist, Trajan Jones, as his mouthpiece to hammer home his point. Point taken. I'm out.

I may try again later when I have more patience to spare on fictional characters.

If you think you'd enjoy an author who never uses two syllables where three or four are possible, who is verbose enough to allow the meaning to squirm out of a sentence before the end, you'll love this guy. Lousy dialogue, lousy characters, unbelievably trite plot and zero suspense add up to make this one a pass.

I struggled through this book and although it was intriguing at the beginning, the contrived plots and unrealistic characters made it harder and harder to finish.

ami