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miriamsenay's review
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
euripus's review against another edition
2.0
I have finished this book today, and found it quite okay. Although sometimes a bit detailed, the story was okay, but it lacked some story plot and it ended kind of weird. I still enjoyed reading it though, but I don't think I will ever pick this book up again.
samstillreading's review against another edition
3.0
One Man, One Murder was another ebook I was asked to review by the kind folks at Melville House Publishing (the same publishing house that published the excellent Death and the Penguin). This book is translated from the German and is the third in a series starring Kemal Kayankaya. (It works perfectly as a standalone book though.) Kemal is a private investigator in Frankfurt, Germany and his latest case is to find out who kidnapped Sri Dao, a Thai girl whose visa has run out.
Kemal, who is of Turkish origin, runs into all sorts of trouble when he investigates this case. Racism from immigration officials, his own friends being involved and the twists and turns of the case exposes an even bigger problem than he first thought.
The author (and the translator) have done an excellent job in getting the voice of Kemal just right. The story is told in the first person and Kemal sounds just like what you’d expect a private investigator to sound like – hard bitten, world weary and cynical. He has a dry sense of humour and a knack for working out the idiosyncrasies at each step of the case. His office even sounds like a private investigator’s – one room, dreary and with ‘the scent of spilled Scotch’.
The only problem I had with this book was being able to keep up with the German names to work out who was who. Perhaps this was because I’ve never studied German or visited Germany; I couldn’t make them stick in my head. I eventually wrote myself a little note as a reminder, which worked very well. I also had some trouble with the format of this galley on my Sony Reader – as it’s a PDF, the size of the font I could see and the size of the PDF page didn’t match well. This meant that each page was actually a page and a bit, which meant I had to flick pages some more. I’m sure this is fixed with the final ebook though.
In summary, this is a tight thriller/detective story that’s gritty and exciting. Another great crime translation.
Kemal, who is of Turkish origin, runs into all sorts of trouble when he investigates this case. Racism from immigration officials, his own friends being involved and the twists and turns of the case exposes an even bigger problem than he first thought.
The author (and the translator) have done an excellent job in getting the voice of Kemal just right. The story is told in the first person and Kemal sounds just like what you’d expect a private investigator to sound like – hard bitten, world weary and cynical. He has a dry sense of humour and a knack for working out the idiosyncrasies at each step of the case. His office even sounds like a private investigator’s – one room, dreary and with ‘the scent of spilled Scotch’.
The only problem I had with this book was being able to keep up with the German names to work out who was who. Perhaps this was because I’ve never studied German or visited Germany; I couldn’t make them stick in my head. I eventually wrote myself a little note as a reminder, which worked very well. I also had some trouble with the format of this galley on my Sony Reader – as it’s a PDF, the size of the font I could see and the size of the PDF page didn’t match well. This meant that each page was actually a page and a bit, which meant I had to flick pages some more. I’m sure this is fixed with the final ebook though.
In summary, this is a tight thriller/detective story that’s gritty and exciting. Another great crime translation.
alanfederman's review
3.0
I'm enjoying this series - it features a wise-cracking Turkish PI living in Frankfurt, Germany, although he could be a character from a Raymond Chandler novel. This was a pretty straight forward who dun it. A couple surprises, interesting characters and a great rainy Sunday read.
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