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katieinca's review against another edition
4.0
Now I have to decide between reading the rest as audio, so I get to hear the accents, or on paper, so I can go faster. Hmmm.
billymac1962's review against another edition
Lost interest at 33%, unfortunately.
It was competing with another book I had started in parallel....all of this symptomatic of a book hangover from a previous read.
It was competing with another book I had started in parallel....all of this symptomatic of a book hangover from a previous read.
bluestarfish's review against another edition
3.0
Wexford is still a bit of a secondary character in this novel but I did find it a lot more thrilling than the first one. Rev Henry Archery is poking his nose into a sisteen year old case to try and prove Wexford wrong, which is a rather novel approach for a detective story...
alanyoung's review against another edition
3.0
It was a good read and a satisfactory conclusion. I rather lost my way as I was slow to get into it and, as a result, was unclear how characters related when I picked up the book again.
eososray's review against another edition
3.0
Inspector Wexford takes a backseat to Reverend Archery in this murder mystery.
The Reverend is concerned about having a daughter-in-law with a murderer for a father and tries to enlist the Inspector to help him prove that the father was innocent.
Honestly the whole premise behind looking into the murder was rather annoying. The Reverend comes across as a self righteous prat, which if that was the intent it worked really well but it rather ruined the book for me.
The Reverend is concerned about having a daughter-in-law with a murderer for a father and tries to enlist the Inspector to help him prove that the father was innocent.
Honestly the whole premise behind looking into the murder was rather annoying. The Reverend comes across as a self righteous prat, which if that was the intent it worked really well but it rather ruined the book for me.
kittykornerlibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
I'm wanting to compare Ruth Rendell's Wexford books to Josephine Tey, in that the mystery isn't really as important as the unfolding of the characters and the psychology and motivation of the people in the case. This is the second in the series, and has to do with re-investigating a murder from the past. The solution to the problem is not the same as the solution to the murder case. I really enjoyed this and am planning to continue this series.
yetilibrary's review against another edition
5.0
According to my INFALLIBLE GoodReads records, I actually read this in 2008 first. In the last 8 years I forgot all about it and reread it and remembered nothing about the plot, so GO ME! Also I seem to like it better now than I did then.
A strength of a Rendell novel is that the characters are so real, so well-sketched, that none of them is 100% likeable. That is the case here. (By the same token, it's unusual for a character to be completely UNlikeable... but it happens.) A weakness of some Rendell novels, however, is their age: some rely heavily on social taboos that have lost a lot of their power in the last several decades, and that is the case here (Sins of the Fathers is from 1967). As a thirtysomething in 2016, it's hard for me to FULLY appreciate the cold, hard terror that people from that time felt about having their social transgressions discovered, and it's a stumbling block to me as a reader.
That said, as usual I never fully anticipated where Rendell was going, and the book was tightly-written and well-plotted. I enjoyed it a lot!
A strength of a Rendell novel is that the characters are so real, so well-sketched, that none of them is 100% likeable. That is the case here. (By the same token, it's unusual for a character to be completely UNlikeable... but it happens.) A weakness of some Rendell novels, however, is their age: some rely heavily on social taboos that have lost a lot of their power in the last several decades, and that is the case here (Sins of the Fathers is from 1967). As a thirtysomething in 2016, it's hard for me to FULLY appreciate the cold, hard terror that people from that time felt about having their social transgressions discovered, and it's a stumbling block to me as a reader.
That said, as usual I never fully anticipated where Rendell was going, and the book was tightly-written and well-plotted. I enjoyed it a lot!
latas's review against another edition
3.0
Why this book is filed as 'Wexford #2' is the biggest mystery as Wexford and his deputy, Burden, don’t do any detective work in this.
Wexford has to revisit the first murder case he had solved long ago, when Vicar Archery approaches him and if he is really convinced of the convict's guilt.
Wexford is confident that he had the right man in the first place, so he stays put. Now Archery has to go through the transcripts, talk to the witnesses and put it all together.
The detective story was miniscule. But there were several sub-plots which didn't help the flow. Archery's personal fantasies were not related to the plot.
Her writing is good, though the switch to second person for a witness account was jarring.
I will go through the other book reviews and pursue them only if they have good detective plot, as this book was quite unsatisfactory.
I really hate the new GR review page. Lot of scrolling
Wexford has to revisit the first murder case he had solved long ago, when Vicar Archery approaches him and if he is really convinced of the convict's guilt.
Wexford is confident that he had the right man in the first place, so he stays put. Now Archery has to go through the transcripts, talk to the witnesses and put it all together.
The detective story was miniscule. But there were several sub-plots which didn't help the flow. Archery's personal fantasies were not related to the plot.
Her writing is good, though the switch to second person for a witness account was jarring.
I will go through the other book reviews and pursue them only if they have good detective plot, as this book was quite unsatisfactory.
I really hate the new GR review page. Lot of scrolling
davidlz1's review against another edition
3.0
Not a bad read. Ms. Rendell apparently improves over time with each subsequent writing. One of the nice things about her writing style is that she incorporates a number of obscure adjectives which is wonderful in expanding one's vocabulary. The story itself was full of twists and turns. The ending was completely unexpected (at least by me) and it actually provoked a combination of sadness and repulsion at the same time. Definitely worth the read. A bonus in that it is a short novel which means it will not cannibalize all your time.