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A review by clairereviews
Brother Kemal by Jakob Arjouni, Anthea Bell
3.0
Received this book via Real Readers, so it's not one I would have personally picked, but it is of the crime genre that I tend to favour. Although it is the fifth in a series of books featuring private detective Kemal Kayankaya, it promised to be a stand alone book with no need for prior knowledge of the character.
At the beginning of the book, and up to the first half, I did not particularly like Kemal Kayankaya as a character, although I got that he is supposed to have a sarcastic sense of humour which is something I usually like in a character. I just didn't find him credible or likeable - perhaps something was lost in the translation for me, as i found that the sentences did not flow very well and it was quite hard going.
After the first half, with the introduction of Katja, I found the dialogue between her and Kayankaya much easier to read, and i found humour in Kayankaya's character. I especially liked the scenes between these two characters. I found the second half of the book much easier to read, and i wanted to continue reading to find out what happened next.
The story ended with a surprise that i was not expecting, which was good. I liked the unpredictability of the second half and ending much more than the first half, which i really struggled with. I think that this was perhaps due to the fact that I had not read Arjouni before, and found his style of writing more challenging than my usual read.
Although I would not deliberately seek out the other books in the series, If i came across them I would probably purchase them to read in the order they were meant. This would be my preferred way of reading this series, and I feel that my review would have been more favourable had i read the previous four books before this fifth one.
At the beginning of the book, and up to the first half, I did not particularly like Kemal Kayankaya as a character, although I got that he is supposed to have a sarcastic sense of humour which is something I usually like in a character. I just didn't find him credible or likeable - perhaps something was lost in the translation for me, as i found that the sentences did not flow very well and it was quite hard going.
After the first half, with the introduction of Katja, I found the dialogue between her and Kayankaya much easier to read, and i found humour in Kayankaya's character. I especially liked the scenes between these two characters. I found the second half of the book much easier to read, and i wanted to continue reading to find out what happened next.
The story ended with a surprise that i was not expecting, which was good. I liked the unpredictability of the second half and ending much more than the first half, which i really struggled with. I think that this was perhaps due to the fact that I had not read Arjouni before, and found his style of writing more challenging than my usual read.
Although I would not deliberately seek out the other books in the series, If i came across them I would probably purchase them to read in the order they were meant. This would be my preferred way of reading this series, and I feel that my review would have been more favourable had i read the previous four books before this fifth one.