Scan barcode
booktwitcher23's review against another edition
3.0
A slow starter, but once I had accomadated myself to the characters - away I went.
tooshorttoread's review
2.0
I’m beginning to remember why I don’t read as much Crime/Mystery as I watch, I find it very hard to separate the good crime novels from the bad at first glance. Does anyone have any mystery/crime recommendations to help me avoid this?
I was quite looking forward to this one. The blurb looked interesting, it had a lovely cover and the writing style at the beginning was very promising. In fact, that was my main highlight of the book. The blurb describes the novel as being ‘beautifully told’ and this is one thing I agree with – the prose style is wonderful and demonstrates a clear love for language. I also really enjoyed the sections describing the silversmiths’ world – it is clearly a well researched book that is rich in period detail.
All these things should add up to a good book, so imagine my disappointment when – for the next few chapters – I got bounced about from POV to POV without ever really getting to see any of the action. When things finally started to pull together the sudden narrowing of the world – and everyone’s improbable links with Mallory of all people – began to feel more like Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon than any sort of mysterious denouement.
There is, of course, another problem in having the murdered character being so unlikeable that you’re glad he’s dead. There’s little impetus for us to care who killed him and as a result the story falls flat. Perhaps if more had been made of Mary fears that she had murdered Pierre unknowingly, then I would have been eager to see it disproved. However I have to say that the killer, when they are ultimately revealed, is actually a good twist and I was glad to find some purpose in Pierre’s diary extracts. Until then they had felt like another unnecessary POV. So I suppose the solution is actually interesting and what I really object to is the manner in which we get there.
The book jacket also touts this as a page turner – something it most definitely is not. The writing style is lovely, yes, but it certainly doesn’t lend itself to this label. As to the actual mystery itself, it proves far from gripping and far from the central point of the story. The plot moved so slowly and in such a meandering manner that it lacked any forward momentum. It feels like Tobin has tried to cram too many stories into too small a space which was a shame as individually some of the strands would have proved intriguing. The result of this is that the plot’s spread too thinly and the characterisations are lacking. Nobody really feels developed – apart from perhaps Johanna and Harriet – and some people just feel altogether unnecessary (ahem Digby ahem).
The time skips resulting from so many differing POV’s were far from helpful in this and resulted in a lot of it being told in stilted summarised flashbacks rather than shown. As already hinted, I could have done without Digby altogether. I understood the need for someone to be investigating the events but his sections were by far the most boring. I kept reading through them though as I was hoping he’d make some progress, but he never really seemed to until right at the end. He could easily have just been the POV for the prologue and then have another character fulfil his purpose, indeed in many aspects other characters do – and are better at it!
All in all I found this to be something of an odd fish. Well written whilst simultaneously being badly constructed. A lot of unrealised potential.
I was quite looking forward to this one. The blurb looked interesting, it had a lovely cover and the writing style at the beginning was very promising. In fact, that was my main highlight of the book. The blurb describes the novel as being ‘beautifully told’ and this is one thing I agree with – the prose style is wonderful and demonstrates a clear love for language. I also really enjoyed the sections describing the silversmiths’ world – it is clearly a well researched book that is rich in period detail.
All these things should add up to a good book, so imagine my disappointment when – for the next few chapters – I got bounced about from POV to POV without ever really getting to see any of the action. When things finally started to pull together the sudden narrowing of the world – and everyone’s improbable links with Mallory of all people – began to feel more like Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon than any sort of mysterious denouement.
There is, of course, another problem in having the murdered character being so unlikeable that you’re glad he’s dead. There’s little impetus for us to care who killed him and as a result the story falls flat. Perhaps if more had been made of Mary fears that she had murdered Pierre unknowingly, then I would have been eager to see it disproved. However I have to say that the killer, when they are ultimately revealed, is actually a good twist and I was glad to find some purpose in Pierre’s diary extracts. Until then they had felt like another unnecessary POV. So I suppose the solution is actually interesting and what I really object to is the manner in which we get there.
The book jacket also touts this as a page turner – something it most definitely is not. The writing style is lovely, yes, but it certainly doesn’t lend itself to this label. As to the actual mystery itself, it proves far from gripping and far from the central point of the story. The plot moved so slowly and in such a meandering manner that it lacked any forward momentum. It feels like Tobin has tried to cram too many stories into too small a space which was a shame as individually some of the strands would have proved intriguing. The result of this is that the plot’s spread too thinly and the characterisations are lacking. Nobody really feels developed – apart from perhaps Johanna and Harriet – and some people just feel altogether unnecessary (ahem Digby ahem).
The time skips resulting from so many differing POV’s were far from helpful in this and resulted in a lot of it being told in stilted summarised flashbacks rather than shown. As already hinted, I could have done without Digby altogether. I understood the need for someone to be investigating the events but his sections were by far the most boring. I kept reading through them though as I was hoping he’d make some progress, but he never really seemed to until right at the end. He could easily have just been the POV for the prologue and then have another character fulfil his purpose, indeed in many aspects other characters do – and are better at it!
All in all I found this to be something of an odd fish. Well written whilst simultaneously being badly constructed. A lot of unrealised potential.
helensbookshelf's review
3.0
The Silversmith's Wife is a very slow-moving story of the shocking murder of a silversmith and the impact it has on the lives of the people around him.
This is a book full of people with secrets. It touches on different people and their thoughts but never shows us their whole, much is kept hidden, often the people in the story don't understand themselves their own thoughts and actions. It makes it a murky story to read but I find it a much more accurate portrayal of the human character than those books where everyone seems to have a defined purpose and clear cut opinions on everyone and everything. It just makes for more difficult reading.
I call it a murky story because not only the characters do odd things and their motivations are often unclear, what they do is often unclear too. A lot of the big events seem to happen off-page and are alluded to or described very loosely for us to fill in the details ourselves.
Where it succeeds is in creating an oppressive, heavy atmosphere and a world that is brought to life with very detailed characters and lots of historical details. Everyone in the book seems trapped, miserable, held captive by the rules of society in lives that they don't really want.
There are a lot of characters in the story, some drop in and out and I found it hard to remember who they were. Despite this wide cast of characters, it makes me feel like there are only 10 people in the whole of London and they all know each other and everyone is either a silversmith or the child or partner of one.
I don't mind slow-moving stories but for me, this one is just too dreary and has too many miserable characters in it with murky motivations for me to really like it. Though saying that, I read it very quickly. Towards the end, it picks up the pace a bit and it leads us nicely to the revelation of who really did kill the silversmith.
The diary entries from Pierre Renard, the murdered man, at the start of each chapter were really what kept me reading. In each one, we find out more of the secrets of his life and find out more about how cruel and self-obsessed he really was. Without them, I feel I would have become bored very quickly because the story is so slow-moving and seems to follow people around a lot without much really happening. Mary, the Silversmith's Wife is an especially dull person. Though it's part of the story that she has become that way through Pierre's treatment of her, it still makes her very difficult to read. The excerpts from Pierre's diary show the other side - he was not a nice man and through these excerpts I found myself finding the sympathy towards his wife that the story needs.
Read this one if you like slow-moving and dark stories full of historical detail but if you're looking for an exciting murder story, then this probably isn't one for you.
This is a book full of people with secrets. It touches on different people and their thoughts but never shows us their whole, much is kept hidden, often the people in the story don't understand themselves their own thoughts and actions. It makes it a murky story to read but I find it a much more accurate portrayal of the human character than those books where everyone seems to have a defined purpose and clear cut opinions on everyone and everything. It just makes for more difficult reading.
I call it a murky story because not only the characters do odd things and their motivations are often unclear, what they do is often unclear too. A lot of the big events seem to happen off-page and are alluded to or described very loosely for us to fill in the details ourselves.
Where it succeeds is in creating an oppressive, heavy atmosphere and a world that is brought to life with very detailed characters and lots of historical details. Everyone in the book seems trapped, miserable, held captive by the rules of society in lives that they don't really want.
There are a lot of characters in the story, some drop in and out and I found it hard to remember who they were. Despite this wide cast of characters, it makes me feel like there are only 10 people in the whole of London and they all know each other and everyone is either a silversmith or the child or partner of one.
I don't mind slow-moving stories but for me, this one is just too dreary and has too many miserable characters in it with murky motivations for me to really like it. Though saying that, I read it very quickly. Towards the end, it picks up the pace a bit and it leads us nicely to the revelation of who really did kill the silversmith.
The diary entries from Pierre Renard, the murdered man, at the start of each chapter were really what kept me reading. In each one, we find out more of the secrets of his life and find out more about how cruel and self-obsessed he really was. Without them, I feel I would have become bored very quickly because the story is so slow-moving and seems to follow people around a lot without much really happening. Mary, the Silversmith's Wife is an especially dull person. Though it's part of the story that she has become that way through Pierre's treatment of her, it still makes her very difficult to read. The excerpts from Pierre's diary show the other side - he was not a nice man and through these excerpts I found myself finding the sympathy towards his wife that the story needs.
Read this one if you like slow-moving and dark stories full of historical detail but if you're looking for an exciting murder story, then this probably isn't one for you.
More...