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A review by veronicafrance
The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller
3.0
I really enjoyed reading this book, and it was heading for four stars until I got to chapter 36, when it abruptly dropped at least half a star. "The new [b:Birdsong|6259|Birdsong|Sebastian Faulks|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165555939s/6259.jpg|1093016] -- only better" claims a quote from The Independent on the cover. Ridiculous. Of course they address many of the same themes, but this book is completely different from Birdsong and can't sensibly be compared with it.
The slow start draws the reader in to Laurence's post-war life, wondering what has happened to his wife and child, what his war experiences were, what happened to his schoolfriend John Emmett. Speller skilfully builds up the sense of mystery as Laurence stumbles up one blind alley after another, gradually pulling threads of the story together with the help of his only friend Charles (who's a bit of a Deus ex machina figure, always happening to know people who can provide vital information!). But after this convincing beginning, with its realistic characters and emotions, I found the dénouement rather bathetic, with a classic pompous, detective-novel style exposition from a comic-book villain with a gun in his hand. I didn't find it credible after what had gone before, and also I just hadn't been expecting it to turn out to be an Agatha Christie-style novel.
But it won't put me off reading more of Elizabeth Speller's work. She's an excellent writer with a talent for vivid scene-setting, and I loved her memoir [b:The Sunlight on the Garden|1182530|The Sunlight on the Garden A Family in Love, War and Madness|Elizabeth Speller|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181703452s/1182530.jpg|1170452]. I think she's destined for success. So I'll be putting [b:The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton|10821314|The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton|Elizabeth Speller|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PUqJMo5NL._SL75_.jpg|15735037] on my wishlist.
Spoiler
The slow start draws the reader in to Laurence's post-war life, wondering what has happened to his wife and child, what his war experiences were, what happened to his schoolfriend John Emmett. Speller skilfully builds up the sense of mystery as Laurence stumbles up one blind alley after another, gradually pulling threads of the story together with the help of his only friend Charles (who's a bit of a Deus ex machina figure, always happening to know people who can provide vital information!). But after this convincing beginning, with its realistic characters and emotions, I found the dénouement rather bathetic, with a classic pompous, detective-novel style exposition from a comic-book villain with a gun in his hand. I didn't find it credible after what had gone before, and also I just hadn't been expecting it to turn out to be an Agatha Christie-style novel.
But it won't put me off reading more of Elizabeth Speller's work. She's an excellent writer with a talent for vivid scene-setting, and I loved her memoir [b:The Sunlight on the Garden|1182530|The Sunlight on the Garden A Family in Love, War and Madness|Elizabeth Speller|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181703452s/1182530.jpg|1170452]. I think she's destined for success. So I'll be putting [b:The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton|10821314|The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton|Elizabeth Speller|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PUqJMo5NL._SL75_.jpg|15735037] on my wishlist.