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lgarrity's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
angela_king's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
annarella's review against another edition
5.0
This is not the usual British Library Crime Classics, it's a thriller with a locked room aspect.
I liked the book because of the unusual setting, the great description of the life in a POW camp and the fast pace.
It's a book that aged well, with a great mystery, fast paced and challenging.
I look forward to reading other books by this author as this one was great.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
I liked the book because of the unusual setting, the great description of the life in a POW camp and the fast pace.
It's a book that aged well, with a great mystery, fast paced and challenging.
I look forward to reading other books by this author as this one was great.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
annarella's review
5.0
This is not the usual British Library Crime Classics, it's a thriller with a locked room aspect.
I liked the book because of the unusual setting, the great description of the life in a POW camp and the fast pace.
It's a book that aged well, with a great mystery, fast paced and challenging.
I look forward to reading other books by this author as this one was great.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
I liked the book because of the unusual setting, the great description of the life in a POW camp and the fast pace.
It's a book that aged well, with a great mystery, fast paced and challenging.
I look forward to reading other books by this author as this one was great.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
singlecrow's review
Not strictly a detective novel as much as a thriller, though there is a murder and detective of sorts. The British officers in an Italian POW camp in 1943 are, naturally, trying to tunnel their way out, and are a little startled to find a dead guy in the Hut C tunnel. Cue hijinks while they try and figure out how the man was killed and put in the escape tunnel without any of them knowing. The book is unashamedly played for comedy throughout: the POWs argue constantly and want to know why their roulette boards and theatrical properties are constantly being repurposed for escape schemes; two of the Scottish officers persist in a joint make-believe that that they are having an evening out on the Strand; Colonel Lavery dislikes being questioned by the Commandant about tunnels and suchlike, because as the Commandant well knows, it's Colonel Baird who runs the Escape Committee. And that would all be fine - people have written sitcoms about wartime before - if it weren't for the fact that Gilbert was a prisoner in an Italian POW camp in 1943 and, like some of the Hut C officers eventually have to do, escaped across enemy lines by hiking hundred of miles through the Italian countryside in winter. There's an edge to all the silliness that only really shows in the last couple of chapters, after the prisoners know the "real" Nazis are coming, and it really struck me. This isn't my favourite of Gilbert's books, but I keep thinking about it and I suspect I will come back to it again.
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