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claudia_is_reading's review against another edition
4.0
Situated in Prague during World War II, this story begins with an American working with the resistance, which is what sets the events that will drag Ellie into a web of danger and intrigue.
This is a very well written book, with a main character who is interesting and flawed, and who grows along the story. The plot is intriguing, easy to follow but hard to unravel (which is how it should always be).
An excellent thriller, and a more than auspicious first book in the series. I will be reading the rest of it, that's for sure.
This is a very well written book, with a main character who is interesting and flawed, and who grows along the story. The plot is intriguing, easy to follow but hard to unravel (which is how it should always be).
An excellent thriller, and a more than auspicious first book in the series. I will be reading the rest of it, that's for sure.
claudia_is_reading's review against another edition
4.0
Situated in Prague during World War II, this story begins with an American working with the resistance, which is what sets the events that will drag Ellie into a web of danger and intrigue.
This is a very well written book, with a main character who is interesting and flawed, and who grows along the story. The plot is intriguing, easy to follow but hard to unravel (which is how it should always be).
An excellent thriller, and a more than auspicious first book in the series. I will be reading the rest of it, that's for sure.
This is a very well written book, with a main character who is interesting and flawed, and who grows along the story. The plot is intriguing, easy to follow but hard to unravel (which is how it should always be).
An excellent thriller, and a more than auspicious first book in the series. I will be reading the rest of it, that's for sure.
paulmslima's review against another edition
2.0
A complex but not convoluted plot -- murders that stretch back to post-WWII that become even more murders in the present day. As tends to be the case with these kind of books, the characters are two-dimensional as is the dialogue and some of the action. The plot elevates this book, but the main character is sort of a whimp. She more accidentally solves 'the case' than diligently works at it. Still, the plot has merit.
wendyb80's review against another edition
4.0
Great story! The twists and turns are great, sometimes a stretch, but mostly believable.
nnecatrix's review against another edition
3.0
Book #64 for 2017
Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge: A debut novel
PopSugar's Ultimate Reading Challenge (max. 3):
- An espionage thriller
- A book set in two different time periods
- The first book in a series you haven't read before
GenreLand: November - Mystery
Mt TBR Challenge #19
Better World Books:
- A book set in a place you want to visit (Chicago, Prague)
- A book by a female writer
Follow the Clues: Trail 2, Clue 3
This one is hard to rate. I liked the intriguing premise. I'm a sucker for an inter-generational spy tale. Especially when there are Nazis to punch and/or kill. And the lens of Jewish Chicago was compelling. But I generally felt disoriented while reading this. It came out in 2002, and some of the tech and pop culture references felt right for that. Lots of other details, though, felt distinctly 20th-century. And while I didn't go through and do a timeline, there were quite a few dates and lives and milestones that I couldn't reconcile in my head, so they felt like an incoherent jumble as I was reading. So perhaps this book, once written, didn't get picked up by a publisher for quite some time, attempts were made to update it before publication, and it really needed one more thorough continuity edit that it didn't get.
It could probably have benefited from another general editing round as well. The dialogue felt stiff and self-conscious. Not horribly so, but enough to be distracting. I was also distracted by occasional weirdness of the "but that's not how that works" variety. Or were summer camps where the kids had unfettered access to fax machines an actual Thing in the '90s? And I'm told that there really are people who can tell at a glance who somebody is wearing, but that's just so bizarre to me, and it's not the sort of trait I expect in a Midwestern soccer mom. Well, okay, this Midwestern soccer mom also turns out to be an experienced shoplifter, but we don't find this out until what, halfway through the book, so now we're into pacing problems.
Ellie also seemed unusually dense too often for somebody who was presented as a pretty smart cookie. I had way too many "oh, c'mon" eyeroll moments while reading this.
Overall, though, I did like the book. The story and the settings were interesting, though I think I would have liked more of a look at the wartime action. I wouldn't recommend this to somebody who's going to nitpick like I've done here, but I think a lot of readers would really enjoy this book, particularly if they have an interest in Jewish Chicago.
Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge: A debut novel
PopSugar's Ultimate Reading Challenge (max. 3):
- An espionage thriller
- A book set in two different time periods
- The first book in a series you haven't read before
GenreLand: November - Mystery
Mt TBR Challenge #19
Better World Books:
- A book set in a place you want to visit (Chicago, Prague)
- A book by a female writer
Follow the Clues: Trail 2, Clue 3
This one is hard to rate. I liked the intriguing premise. I'm a sucker for an inter-generational spy tale. Especially when there are Nazis to punch and/or kill. And the lens of Jewish Chicago was compelling. But I generally felt disoriented while reading this. It came out in 2002, and some of the tech and pop culture references felt right for that. Lots of other details, though, felt distinctly 20th-century. And while I didn't go through and do a timeline, there were quite a few dates and lives and milestones that I couldn't reconcile in my head, so they felt like an incoherent jumble as I was reading. So perhaps this book, once written, didn't get picked up by a publisher for quite some time, attempts were made to update it before publication, and it really needed one more thorough continuity edit that it didn't get.
It could probably have benefited from another general editing round as well. The dialogue felt stiff and self-conscious. Not horribly so, but enough to be distracting. I was also distracted by occasional weirdness of the "but that's not how that works" variety. Or were summer camps where the kids had unfettered access to fax machines an actual Thing in the '90s? And I'm told that there really are people who can tell at a glance who somebody is wearing, but that's just so bizarre to me, and it's not the sort of trait I expect in a Midwestern soccer mom. Well, okay, this Midwestern soccer mom also turns out to be an experienced shoplifter, but we don't find this out until what, halfway through the book, so now we're into pacing problems.
Ellie also seemed unusually dense too often for somebody who was presented as a pretty smart cookie. I had way too many "oh, c'mon" eyeroll moments while reading this.
Overall, though, I did like the book. The story and the settings were interesting, though I think I would have liked more of a look at the wartime action. I wouldn't recommend this to somebody who's going to nitpick like I've done here, but I think a lot of readers would really enjoy this book, particularly if they have an interest in Jewish Chicago.
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