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3.3 AVERAGE
3.3 AVERAGE
I wish it were a little more thrilling, however the premise is.
My first Wilkie Collins, a shorter novel from 1878. I liked his writing style and the tension of the second half of the story, though the exposition takes a while to unfold and a few of the characters seemed just to clutter the story. (Two top-notch unabridged audios of this novel make it very inviting: the one I listened to was the excellent Naxos recording with Jonathan Keeble. What a job he does! From the excerpt at Audible, it sounds as if the Blackstone recording with Traci Svendsgaard is also engaging. I almost went with that one.)
What a fun read! There was no way I could wait for the next issue; I had to keep reading. Fantastic creepy Victorian gothic mystery/ghost/horror story: Venice! Mysterious widows! A rake with an interest in chemistry! To tell more would be a disservice.
I picked this up almost at random on a table in a bookstore and was pleasantly surprised--it was an excellent Wilkie Collins (short) novel that contains suspense, melodrama, fate, horror, possibly the supernatural, and more. It is a page turner from the very beginning, with a mysterious woman visiting a doctor to ask him if she is insane and then moving in a fast paced manner to the disappearance of a courier and then a set of strange occurrences centering around a particular hotel room in Venice. The perspective of the book shifts around some and it includes a rather large cast, many of them related, none of them especially exciting as characters but largely of interest as projectiles in the rapidly moving plot that brings together a range of loose ends in a surprising and satisfying manner.
I couldn't put this down. I was craving each encounter between Agnes and the Countess. I just needed to know what was really going on with the Countess. In the end, I got everything and so much more. Absolutely loved this story!
September 2022: Still love this story.
September 2022: Still love this story.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Disappointing ending
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
I liked this!
Quite a bit of intricacy for such a short title. I admit I was floored by the way the events were unveiled. I just thoughtthe play writing reveal method was quite unique and brilliant!
Quite a bit of intricacy for such a short title. I admit I was floored by the way the events were unveiled. I just thought
It has it all! It has murderous and possibly incestuous siblings, alchemy, poisoning, a mad widow, hauntings, family drama, a Venetian palace, dodgy wills, conspiracies, secret chambers, a deathbed confession in the form of a play!