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syringaflower's review against another edition
3.0
2,5 stars.
I was unaware this was the 8th book in a series when I started, and this most definitely had an effect on my star-rating. I did not recognise/know the characters involved and this made it very hard to follow along, especially since some names are very similar to one another.
It was solid, but very dragged out in the middle.
I was unaware this was the 8th book in a series when I started, and this most definitely had an effect on my star-rating. I did not recognise/know the characters involved and this made it very hard to follow along, especially since some names are very similar to one another.
It was solid, but very dragged out in the middle.
rainbowsparkle7x's review against another edition
2.0
This book fell so short of what I've come to expect by Sophie Hannah. I'm so disappointed! It got interesting for a bit, pick up pace until I REALLY wanted to know what was going on, and then fell flat on its face, totally failing to deliver. I feel disloyal writing such a review, but it's sadly the best I could say about this book.
elendilkitten's review against another edition
2.0
The book started off interesting (if a little confusing at times with the number of different POVs happening) but as it dragged on, it got more convoluted without a good reason. There were a couple of subplots that felt pointless, and the "twist" at the end wasn't really a twist, and I just couldn't get behind the motivations of most of the characters.
kimblefairy1989's review against another edition
3.0
Although I enjoyed this novel, it definitely wasn't the best Sophie Hannah I've ever read. I normally find her novels really involving but this one didn't seem to grab me - I think this was quite possibly because I didn't connect with any of the characters, least of all Tim who I just found to be a wet blanket.
However, this novel was very readable hence the 3* rating.
However, this novel was very readable hence the 3* rating.
jesskreads's review against another edition
3.0
Multiple povs and quite confusing. Goes from first to third person part way through chapters
alliehwilliams's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to love this. I can tell the author is talented because I kept reading even though I wanted to take 75% of the characters out back and give them a good old-fashioned beat down. This was the most frustrating book I've read in a long time, mainly because of my feelings for nearly all of the non-detective characters.
Spoiler Alert
My main problem with this book:
Tim Breary is the most unappealing sadsack of a male character since Jude the Obscure. I got sick of hearing about his low self-esteem and how he thought he was unlovable and how all the characters kept explaining away his ridiculous, inexcusable behavior because he was oh, so pitiful. After reading pages and pages of complicated unraveling of his psyche while characters tried to explain his inexplicable decisions, *I* agreed with him!! Tim Breary is unlovable!!! Eeyore would be better company. By the time you find out who killed Francine and why and how, you will hate him too. I liked Gaby initially, but when she discovered the depths to which Tim had sunk (to be fair, he didn't start out at any great height) and still wanted him? I was done.
I did not like this book but I still finished it so I will read something else by Sophie Hannah in the future. She has a good sense of humor as evidenced by Charlie and Simon's exchanges, and Gaby and Lauren's conversations. This just wasn't for me.
Spoiler Alert
My main problem with this book:
Tim Breary is the most unappealing sadsack of a male character since Jude the Obscure. I got sick of hearing about his low self-esteem and how he thought he was unlovable and how all the characters kept explaining away his ridiculous, inexcusable behavior because he was oh, so pitiful. After reading pages and pages of complicated unraveling of his psyche while characters tried to explain his inexplicable decisions, *I* agreed with him!! Tim Breary is unlovable!!! Eeyore would be better company. By the time you find out who killed Francine and why and how, you will hate him too. I liked Gaby initially, but when she discovered the depths to which Tim had sunk (to be fair, he didn't start out at any great height) and still wanted him? I was done.
I did not like this book but I still finished it so I will read something else by Sophie Hannah in the future. She has a good sense of humor as evidenced by Charlie and Simon's exchanges, and Gaby and Lauren's conversations. This just wasn't for me.
mikewa14's review
3.0
dissatisfying
http://0651frombrighton.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-carrier-sophie-hannah.html
http://0651frombrighton.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-carrier-sophie-hannah.html
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
3.0
The Carrier continues Sophie Hannah's series of crime novels loosely centered around a small group of detectives working in the fictional Culver Valley in England. In this one, a businesswoman named Gaby discovers that a man she had had a sort of relationship with has confessed to the murder of his disabled wife. Gaby is certain that he could not have killed her, which causes her to rush back to save him. Returning to a group of old friends, she finds things are quite a bit more complicated than she'd assumed, but her faith in the man's innocence is undaunted. Meanwhile, the detective leading the investigation, Simon Waterhouse, is dealing simultaneously with his conviction that something is wrong with the case as well as the machinations of his somewhat unhinged boss.
Hannah writes as though Ruth Rendell and Barbara Vine had combined their novels (yes, I do know they are the same author), with Vine's odd and compelling psychological suspense forming the heart of each novel, but with Rendell's solid and intuitive police work going on simultaneously. Of course, Wexford and Burden would be shocked and dismayed by the sheer unprofessionalism of Waterhouse and his colleagues, but their determination and interest in motivations are similar.
Hannah's plots are growing more convoluted, and I'm not sure that she entirely sold me on the resolution to this one. But her books are always fun to read and to puzzle out and I'm happy that she's allowing both Zailer and Waterhouse, her lead detectives, to become more rounded as characters and to begin to give the reader the background needed to understand why Waterhouse is such a repressed and angry individual. Secondary characters were also fleshed out, which makes the crime-solving team much more enjoyable to spend time with. I really enjoy this series, in part because Hannah is willing to create central characters who border on the unlikeable, although they are growing on me.
Hannah writes as though Ruth Rendell and Barbara Vine had combined their novels (yes, I do know they are the same author), with Vine's odd and compelling psychological suspense forming the heart of each novel, but with Rendell's solid and intuitive police work going on simultaneously. Of course, Wexford and Burden would be shocked and dismayed by the sheer unprofessionalism of Waterhouse and his colleagues, but their determination and interest in motivations are similar.
Hannah's plots are growing more convoluted, and I'm not sure that she entirely sold me on the resolution to this one. But her books are always fun to read and to puzzle out and I'm happy that she's allowing both Zailer and Waterhouse, her lead detectives, to become more rounded as characters and to begin to give the reader the background needed to understand why Waterhouse is such a repressed and angry individual. Secondary characters were also fleshed out, which makes the crime-solving team much more enjoyable to spend time with. I really enjoy this series, in part because Hannah is willing to create central characters who border on the unlikeable, although they are growing on me.
brighteyes1178's review against another edition
4.0
No, this was not my favorite Zailer and Waterhouse, but I was pretty surprised at how angry and disparaging the reviews were. I trust goodreads readers' opinions implicitly (if we as a community rate something lower than a 3.5, I almost always agree), so I put off reading this book for a few years, wondering if something had really happened to Sophie Hannah's writing. What I didn't realize when I put the book off is that a lot of her books have pretty low ratings; this just happened to be one of the lowest, but books I gave 5s to were also rated on the average near a 3. So what I've learned is that you love Sophie Hannah's books or you hate them. You find the story engaging and can't put the book down, or you're immediately thinking "why do people like this rambling crap? How is she really on book 8?". Since I've fallen into the "rambling crap" camp with plenty of other authors, I'm just going to say that you should go back to the earlier books in this series first; don't start with this one. The books don't really need to be read in order, but if this is your first experience, I don't think it will make you want to read the others, and if you want to get invested in a series of psychological thrillers, then I do think you should read it.
Once I got into this book, like the previous 7, I found it difficult to put down. I just wanted to know who did it, and as usual, I thought I knew but was not certain until the last pages. Don't ignore this one just because it's rated so poorly if you're a Sophie Hannah fan - the ratings don't really apply to us!
Once I got into this book, like the previous 7, I found it difficult to put down. I just wanted to know who did it, and as usual, I thought I knew but was not certain until the last pages. Don't ignore this one just because it's rated so poorly if you're a Sophie Hannah fan - the ratings don't really apply to us!