You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
nuttyrachy's Reviews (495)
Nice short story for me but it was a little bit predictable. I guess maybe I've seen so many of the films and series adaptations that I've got into the habit of knowing its never what they try to make you think. This is my first of a few from this collection so hopefully they get better? I know they won't be as good as the originals but I won't get round to reading them this year.
Listening to this book was very easy. The narrator had a good manner and i could follow it all easily. I liked all the characters and was in the story fully from the beginning. Even though it wasn't your common story with a typical ending I still enjoyed it which surprised me. I wasn't left feeling deflated or irritated by what happened, which again, surprised me and I'm usually a "happy ending" kinda lady. I felt bad for the main character as he just didn't seem to get anything correct, but i equally liked his wife's patience and I felt her frustrations with his behaviour at times too. I liked the narrative way this story was told by the main character. It was very conversational and real, which was helped by the narrator of the audio version.
I just couldn't get into this story. I'm so glad I was listening to it rather than reading it as I would've probably been concentrating more of the pronunciation of the French names and sentences thrown in here and there that I probably wouldn't have made it as far as I did through the story. I think I barely made it halfway but that's hard to tell when you're listening to audio.
First I had to get over the mental image of The Judge constantly wearing a barristers wig and robe just like an ACTUAL judge, so that didn't help, especially when she was deep in a crime scene etc. I think it's just difficult to imagine the scenarios when this whole thing is delt with very differently in France than it is in England.
I kept losing who was who when they used varying names for what seemed to be the same person too, and then I realised I'd seemed to miss big chunks of the actual crime being investigated and didn't really care to start the story over again to pick it up.
In short... I wasn't bothered about knowing what happens to all these characters in the end, so that's my que to stop and download another title.
Fin.
First I had to get over the mental image of The Judge constantly wearing a barristers wig and robe just like an ACTUAL judge, so that didn't help, especially when she was deep in a crime scene etc. I think it's just difficult to imagine the scenarios when this whole thing is delt with very differently in France than it is in England.
I kept losing who was who when they used varying names for what seemed to be the same person too, and then I realised I'd seemed to miss big chunks of the actual crime being investigated and didn't really care to start the story over again to pick it up.
In short... I wasn't bothered about knowing what happens to all these characters in the end, so that's my que to stop and download another title.
Fin.
This book took me a while to get into. I'm glad I listened to it as an audio book because there felt like there was a lot i missed but that it didn't really matter? I don't go for large books so listening to it erased the "oh man I haven't even made a dent in it" moments. It was intriguing and I soon started picturing a lot of the characters in my head and getting a sense of their personalities. Over all it wad a good story and I do love delving into old London. It didn't quite gey the full 4 stars because I didn't feel I was gripped from cover to cover but I did enjoy it... for a big book :P lol
I love books with short stories. This book is not full of short stories per say... but I love the way each item in the memory shop has its own memory and then creates a new memory for its new owner who buys it. This story had a very "love actually" feel to it, with lots and lots of little stories all interwoven. Remember each name of each character because they no doubt will crop up in another one later in the book, ever so subtly in some places, but they're there! Very nicely done, it all came together in the end and I do love a happy ending to a book.
I started but I just couldn't finish. I realise now that it's second in a series so maybe that's why? Maybe I needed to read the first Jane Hawk beforehand, but I'm not that into series' so maybe not. Another reason I probably struggled is because I listened to it on audio in the car. I kept forgetting which character was which, the narrator had a dreary dull voice except when it came to doing individual characters, but even then some of the voices merged into the same so I couldn't tell some apart. I gave up in the end and thought that if I'm not itching to get back into the car to listen to just another 5 minutes of the story then it's not worth it. I'm really disappointed as I love Dean Koontz normally and he was one of my first ever authors I fell in love with in my late teens when I ventured onto an "adult's" book. Its a shame but maybe it would've been better in different circumstances. I'll stick to the stand alone novels for now though.
