Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Probably shouldn't have had this as my first experience of reading Raffles, but I enjoyed it well enough. The story was cleverly crafted and it took me a little bit to come to know Raffles and Bunny, but I grew fond of them rather quickly. I really enjoyed their relationship, and certainly saw the similarities to Holmes & Watson. I will say, that there are elements of this that have aged rather poorly, when looked at through modern eyes, especially the descriptions of the character Dan Levy which made for uncomfortable reading, as well as some unsavoury language choices.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Antisemitism
Minor: Racial slurs
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
tense
A strange end to the Raffles stories. This novel is darker than the majority of the short stories, with several tense action scenes. Like the stories, it is marred by the attitudes of the time, (mainly antisemitism, the novel's antagonist is a Jewish moneylender), and it's extremely hard to sympathise with the Garlands, (the friends Raffles sets out to help), two well-educated men who cannot read contracts or do basic maths. Still, the action scenes are brilliant, Camilla Belsize is an amazing character, and we get Raffles at his worst and Bunny at his best. I love these books despite their faults and have no idea what I'm going to do now I've come to the end of the series.
I love Raffles, and there's some really good stuff in this book...all wrapped inside the frame of an evil Jewish moneylender getting his comeuppance. :-/ Some of the short stories also have antisemitism and racism in them, but the antisemitism is totally unavoidable in this book.
Welp, I've got some mixed feelings about this one. This is the only Raffles book that's a single story rather than a collection of short stories that fit together a little disjointedly, so that part I liked. Hornung is actually stronger in this format, I think. However, the good comes with a steaming pile of racism and antisemitism, which is decidedly not good. Raffles and Bunny are also less wildly in love this time around, so there's less to savor there as well.