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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
Wow, gory. If you are one who likes to figure out who dunnit- don't bother. You are not going to guess this ending.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Love the characters, but towards the end I was wondering, how much more they could take! Concussions, typhoid fever, falling in holes that spontaneously appear in the ground, getting kicked in the head, going down wells...all survived by people in an age where a cold could kill you. But, I still loved it, and there was always a line to redeem the next physical disaster.
medium-paced
Other reviewers have noted the lack of continuity, repetitive phrasing, dead-end plot threads, and gratuitous gore, so there's no need repeat those points.
I know that many readers don't care about historic accuracy or realistic aspects in mysteries. But I do, and I'd like to comment on facets that bothered me:
1) The Revenge Pursuit. Andersonville was liberated in May of 1865. By that year, Confederate soldiers were not clad in uniforms, certainly not "standard issue", as there was none. How did a starving prisoner manage to walk many miles through enemy territory to a port and sign on to a British ship? The Union blockade effectively cut off Southern ports. Sherman had taken Savannah, which was swarming with Union officials. For that matter, how did Grey Eyes evade attracting suspicion during his pursuit of Campbell? How did Grey Eyes have the resources to pursue Campbell for many years in Britain? Why did he suddenly decide to shoot Campbell's "friends" as part of the revenge? After the constable disappears,why do the London detectives make no effort to find him? Why didn't anyone--the detectives in particular--notice a severely disfigured American carrying a rifle off the train and through the village?
2) The Blizzard. First, a coal mine would not be closed because of a storm. Second, the extreme resilience of the London detectives beggars belief. Hammersmith recovers from all afflictions during the course of 24 hours, including a face wound, multiple minor injuries, and typhoid fever(!?). Day takes a full half hour to descend to the bottom of the well, getting banged up, only to wind up being drenched in polluted well water. Yet he's up and running in no time. The Londoners go back and forth in the storm, aided by the "giants',repeatedly faltering and recovering.
3) The Village. Why were houses built here during the Tudor Period? How--and why--would someone built a "cavernous" inn in this location in the 1500s, an inn large enough to be converted into a church? Coal miners were largely Non-Conformist, yet there are no chapels in the village. Who patronized the newer inn? Coal towns would have no use for an inn like this. No one could afford it. Finally, crystal chandeliers would never be found in an 19th-century Midlands coal village house.
4) Mine Subsidence. This is the one that really bugs me. Growing up in Pennsylvania, I saw the effects of mine subsidence firsthand. One of the neighbors opened his garage, only to find that his car had fallen into a mine shaft. His and another house on the block had to be underpinned with steel support beams.
Buildings do not sink into mines as in quicksand. They crack, they tilt, they split apart. When these signs appear, residents get the hell out. In 1863, a whole block of houses fell into a mine cavity in Hazelton, PA. The cause was determined to be excavating too close to the surface, only 20 feet. In the latter 1800s, buildings (not to mention workers' lives) were too valuable for companies and communities to ignore where extraction was being done.
These unrealistic aspects alone would not have ruined the novel for me, but taken with the other problems mentioned above, they did. The basic faults of this novel stem from half-assed editing. Did the editors assume that because the author's first book was so good, they didn't need to bother critiquing the second? Editing *fail*.
In the 1890s Midlands coal towns were wretched,dark, impoverished places. They were scary enough in reality (see D.H.Lawrence's works). This could have been a good book. Instead, it's an exasperating slapdash mess of a read.
I know that many readers don't care about historic accuracy or realistic aspects in mysteries. But I do, and I'd like to comment on facets that bothered me:
1) The Revenge Pursuit. Andersonville was liberated in May of 1865. By that year, Confederate soldiers were not clad in uniforms, certainly not "standard issue", as there was none. How did a starving prisoner manage to walk many miles through enemy territory to a port and sign on to a British ship? The Union blockade effectively cut off Southern ports. Sherman had taken Savannah, which was swarming with Union officials. For that matter, how did Grey Eyes evade attracting suspicion during his pursuit of Campbell? How did Grey Eyes have the resources to pursue Campbell for many years in Britain? Why did he suddenly decide to shoot Campbell's "friends" as part of the revenge? After the constable disappears,why do the London detectives make no effort to find him? Why didn't anyone--the detectives in particular--notice a severely disfigured American carrying a rifle off the train and through the village?
2) The Blizzard. First, a coal mine would not be closed because of a storm. Second, the extreme resilience of the London detectives beggars belief. Hammersmith recovers from all afflictions during the course of 24 hours, including a face wound, multiple minor injuries, and typhoid fever(!?). Day takes a full half hour to descend to the bottom of the well, getting banged up, only to wind up being drenched in polluted well water. Yet he's up and running in no time. The Londoners go back and forth in the storm, aided by the "giants',repeatedly faltering and recovering.
3) The Village. Why were houses built here during the Tudor Period? How--and why--would someone built a "cavernous" inn in this location in the 1500s, an inn large enough to be converted into a church? Coal miners were largely Non-Conformist, yet there are no chapels in the village. Who patronized the newer inn? Coal towns would have no use for an inn like this. No one could afford it. Finally, crystal chandeliers would never be found in an 19th-century Midlands coal village house.
4) Mine Subsidence. This is the one that really bugs me. Growing up in Pennsylvania, I saw the effects of mine subsidence firsthand. One of the neighbors opened his garage, only to find that his car had fallen into a mine shaft. His and another house on the block had to be underpinned with steel support beams.
Buildings do not sink into mines as in quicksand. They crack, they tilt, they split apart. When these signs appear, residents get the hell out. In 1863, a whole block of houses fell into a mine cavity in Hazelton, PA. The cause was determined to be excavating too close to the surface, only 20 feet. In the latter 1800s, buildings (not to mention workers' lives) were too valuable for companies and communities to ignore where extraction was being done.
These unrealistic aspects alone would not have ruined the novel for me, but taken with the other problems mentioned above, they did. The basic faults of this novel stem from half-assed editing. Did the editors assume that because the author's first book was so good, they didn't need to bother critiquing the second? Editing *fail*.
In the 1890s Midlands coal towns were wretched,dark, impoverished places. They were scary enough in reality (see D.H.Lawrence's works). This could have been a good book. Instead, it's an exasperating slapdash mess of a read.
I really enjoy this series. It is gritty and fast-paced but also good historical reads.
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really liked the first in the series but this one was so ridiculous in its plotting and so utterly unbelievable that I had to give it two stars. I will give the next in the series a go in case the author was just overwhelmed by the task of a second book.
A thoroughly entertaining series, this one is set in a mining village in the Midlands which is described beautifully. Again, a nice tangle of storylines which work extremely well together. I enjoyed getting to know the main characters in more detail and am really looking forward to reading the next in the series.