Reviews

No Rest for the Dead by Andrew Gulli

shelleyrae's review

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4.0

No Rest For the Dead is unique in that it is a single story written by a collaboration of over 20 authors including Jeffrey Deaver, Faye Kellerman, Kathy Reichs and Alexander McCall Smith to name just a few. I imagine it was a huge project for David Baldacci to coordinate such a high profile stable of authors.
In No Rest For The Dead, a museum curator disappears only for his body to be discovered in a medieval museum piece that has been shipped half a world a way. His wife, Rosemary, who has tolerated her philandering husband's arrogance for years. is the primary suspect and despite the lack of definitive evidence, she is sentenced to death and summarily executed for the crime. Ten years later, the investigating officer, whose life collapsed in the wake of the case, and close friends of Rosemary, hold a memorial for her. They hope the gathering will at last expose the real killer and clear her name.
While the individual nuance's of each author's voice is evident, the story flows effortlessly and cohesively. It is a masterful plot that delves into the lives of Rosemary and her husband, unearthing a cast that is rife with suspicious characters involved in corruption, theft, drugs and adultery. Several of the main characters have the opportunity to share their perspectives and theories of the crime. Each has a piece of the puzzle that they are loathe to share but even as the story unfolds and the suspect pool narrows, the truth is still the shock it is intended to be.
As a fan of mystery/crime , and with several of my favourite authors contributing to No Rest For the Dead, I simply could not resist the offer to review this title. It is a gripping mystery from some of the genre's best writers - and not to be missed.

st4rlight's review against another edition

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3.0

هذه رواية من نوع خاص ولأكونَ منصفة أقيمها بــ 3.5/5
اشترك في كتابتها 26 من نخبة كتاب الأدب البوليسي ..
السبب الأساسي الذي دعاني لقراءة هذه الرواية هو وجود ديفيد بالدتشي وكاثي رايكس اللذين أعتبرهما أفضل من يكتب الروايات البوليسية الحديثة .
~
قتل كريستوفر توماس ووجدت جثته المتحللة في متحف بـ برلين واتهمت زوجته روزماري بالجريمة وأدينت وحكم عليها بالإعدام ..
بعد مرور عشرة أعوام على إعدام روزماري تظهر أدلة جديدة على أنه ربما تم إعدام الشخص الخطأ وتبدأ رحلة بحث عن براءة المتهمة يقودها صديق للعائلة والمحقق الذي كانَ مسؤولا عن القضية ، وبعد ظهور كثير من الأسرار والأكاذيب والخيانة ؛
لكن ما هي الحقيقة ومالذي حدث في تلكَ الليلة ؟
~
فور أن عرفت أن هذه الرواية اشترك في كتابتها 26 كاتبًا توقعت أن تكون مبتذلة وبمستوى سيء فـ كيف ستتجمع كل هذه العقول في كتابة عمل واحد وحل لغز واحد ـ لكنها كانت جيدة عكس كل توقعاتي وإن نحت في النهاية نحو الكلاسيكية والحل الواضح والمتوقع منذ البداية ..
وظهر بوضوح الطابع الخاص لبعض الكتاب خاصة أولئكَ الذين يكتبون كتابات تتسم بالشاعرية أو تكون رواياتهم عادةً سريعة الأحداث ..
كانت هذه تجربة مختلفة .

hongim's review

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4.0

It is my fault. I broke my rule and read a few reviews. If I hadn't, I might not have noticed the implausible detail. To my knowledge no one gets executed after only two years. There are appeals, etc. I doubt a rich woman with children she loved dearly, would have waived her right to appeals. I would have loved this book to have been about the race to get her off of death row. That would have worked. It really did flow well though. Considering 26 authors contributed. Some of the chapters were really short, so it moved fast. Overall, it was well done.

abcdestherh's review

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3.0

i was intrigued by the idea of each chapter being written by a different author and, wile it is fascinating how they managed to produce a working story when no one knew what the others were writing, the differences were noticeable in a way that it slightly took me out of the story. also, i'm assuming someone went through the written chapters to ensure continuity re appearances etc bc how could it possibly work out otherwise?
the story itself was okay, nothing super amazing - the standout chapter for me was the first one, especially the last few pages are so visceral.
wasn't a fan of the women continuously being put on a fuckability scale basically - incl the
_POSSIBLE SPOILER_
cop guy having a soft spot for the wife bc she has ~beautiful eyes~ fuck that, his entire arch is self pity thinly wrapped in righteousness
_END_

yeah so. hm. thoughts.
oh right, the whole "tracking down everyone who was there and finally uncover the truth" that the blurb talks about wasn't mentioned until page 190??

sateem326's review

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4.0

ستةٌ وعشرون كاتبًا، وأحجيةٌ واحدة..
لم أكن لأتصور أن قيام هذا العدد من الكتاب المشهورين بالاشتراك في روايةٍ واحدة سينتج عن قصةٍ يكتب لها أي قدرٍ من النجاح..
But what do you know..Thy actually did..
ما دفعني لاقتناء هذه الرواية في المقام الأول وجود خمسة من كتّابي المفضلين ضمن هؤلاء الستة والعشرين..
كل فصلٍ من فصول هذه الرواية معنون باسم الكاتب اللذي عمل عليه.. تتجلى عبقرية هذا الطاقم في انسجام طريقتهم الكتابة.. وكأنما كتبت بقلمٍ واحد فقط.. حيث لْاآ ترى تناقضًا او تفاوتًا في مستويات الفصول المختلفة..
مقدمة الكتاب تطرح تحديًا للقارئ لتخمين النهاية الصحيحة.. حسنًا.. في اعتقادي لقد كسبت التحدي.. كان تخميني صحيحًا *_^

لْاآ استطيع الادعاء بأن الرواية أتت بفكرة غير مسبوقة حيث أنني صادفت كتابًا او اثنين بفكرةٍ مشابهة.. لكن هذا بالطبع لْاآ ينقص من الكتّاب بالطبع..
يعيب على هذه الرواية التركيز على بعض الشخصيات على حساب البعض الآخر..
شخصياتٌ يفترض بها أن تكون مؤثرةً على سير الأحداث تم اهمال تقديمها بالشكل المناسب.. مما أدى بها للظهور كشخصياتٍ ثانويةً رغم أهميّتها..

تجربةٌ جميلة وغير مسبوقة بالنسبة لي مع هذا العدد من الكتاب في وقت واحد أتمنى أن تتكرر مرةً أخرى.،

kerrywhitbread's review

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2.0

I liked the story but the end was terribly disappointing. Everything was left open ended. Only a good thing if there is a sequel.

yasminacries's review against another edition

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3.0

I had high expectations. The book wasn’t bad but it was so incredibly slow. The end plot-twist is definitely a little bit twisted but I have to admit the chase at the end and change of character of Nunn’s was a bit of a thrill

verumsolum's review against another edition

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3.0

2.5 stars. This was… about what I expected. A bunch of writers each with a hand in writing this. And so, it was not the most focused cohesive work. But it was interesting to see how things would go. It was entertaining enough. Glad to have bought it on sale, especially since a couple of the authors I was most interested in seemed to have relatively small parts of the writing. It's not a book I'm ever going to recommend to anybody, but I'm not sad about the time I spent listening to it.

elizabethbeck's review against another edition

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3.0

I wanted to love this book. I didn't. So many of the authors are among my favorites. It just didn't work for me. The storytelling was just too disjointed. The tone and language just changed so much each chapter when a different author took over, as a result each chapter felt like a mini part of the story vs a continuation of the bigger story. I wanted more character development than this method delivered. The story itself had a good twist and interesting reveals.

cocahina's review against another edition

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3.0

Meh. I figured out the whodunit aspect right away so the rest of the book just felt like a trial. It was difficult to settle into the story due to so many different writing styles. It wasn't particularly exciting and there was nothing which invested the reader emotionally. Clearly, the writing was well done, with such an array of outstanding authors but that's the best compliment I can give this one.