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stricker's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.75
tricky's review against another edition
2.0
Tom Martin’s novel is about beautiful young Catherine Donovan who refuses to accept that her mentor has committed suicide. She is sent through the mail a set of ancient maps that hold the key to some great awful ancient mystery. James Rutherford becomes Catherine’s partner is this adventure as he has met her mentor on one occasion but it was a strong connection between the two men. From here Catherine and James jet around the world chasing down clues, dodging bad people, getting an education from several experts and eventually understanding the mystery and saving the day. That is pretty much it.
I struggled to like anything about the book because the story never really gets started until the last quarter of the book. Every time you started to move forward you would have to stop and read a large slab of explanation about some ancient theory and they really did get tedious. I understand that the author wanted to show his research prowess but for me it bogged the story down.
Early on in the novel I nearly laughed myself silly when Rutherford is recalling an invitation he gets from Catherine’s mentor, Professor Kent. Kent writes to Rutherford telling him of this discovery he has made, how it is dangerous, it is a time bomb waiting to go off, destruction of the world and by the way would you like to come over for tea on Thursday next? What!
Then there was a lot of description that that was awful, I mean there was a lot of ‘brow furrowed’, gritted teeth’, ‘pained expression’, ‘smartly dressed’, ‘breathed expansively’, ‘bursting to ask questions’, ‘eyed the lights nervously’, ‘listened in fascination’ and so many others that just began to grate.
I really struggled to like this novel, it was not for me.
I struggled to like anything about the book because the story never really gets started until the last quarter of the book. Every time you started to move forward you would have to stop and read a large slab of explanation about some ancient theory and they really did get tedious. I understand that the author wanted to show his research prowess but for me it bogged the story down.
Early on in the novel I nearly laughed myself silly when Rutherford is recalling an invitation he gets from Catherine’s mentor, Professor Kent. Kent writes to Rutherford telling him of this discovery he has made, how it is dangerous, it is a time bomb waiting to go off, destruction of the world and by the way would you like to come over for tea on Thursday next? What!
Then there was a lot of description that that was awful, I mean there was a lot of ‘brow furrowed’, gritted teeth’, ‘pained expression’, ‘smartly dressed’, ‘breathed expansively’, ‘bursting to ask questions’, ‘eyed the lights nervously’, ‘listened in fascination’ and so many others that just began to grate.
I really struggled to like this novel, it was not for me.
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