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roberto's reviews
119 reviews
Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
My first by this author, and it won't be the last. In post-Soviet Ukraine, Viktor lives a lonely life with the penguin he rescued from the zoo. Then he is offered a lucrative job compiling obituaries for a newspaper. It soon becomes apparent that all is not as it seems, as Viktor becomes embroiled in the shady criminal world of Kyiv. I was reminded of Bulgakov and Kafka in the way ludicrous events are presented in a flat, matter-of-fact tone. There are moments of poignancy and humour too. And of course, the novel seems ever more relevant now.
The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith by Patricia Wentworth
3.0
Typical Golden Age thriller material. Jane Smith, as the name implies, is a very ordinary girl, but of course she gets caught up in a huge conspiracy. Improbabilities abound, including identical cousins, secret laboratories, mysterious organisations - all the usual items. Wentworth writes with verve and observation, so it's easy to suspend disbelief. It really is a rattling good yarn.
Death in the Dentist's Chair by Molly Thynne
3.0
A standard Golden Age mystery, with some gruesome aspects. Some similarity to an Agatha Christie Poirot novel, One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, in that the plot involves just who can access a dentist's surgery while a patient is present.
The Case of Sir Adam Braid by Molly Thynne
4.0
A very clever mystery, with an ingenious solution. Evocative portrayal of a down-at-heel London in the thirties.
A Patriot In Berlin by Piers Paul Read
4.0
A Patriot in Berlin, first published in 1995, and now reissued as an e-book by Open Road Media, is a spy novel that begins as a thriller, and ends as a meditation on patriotism and loyalty. The scene is the newly unified city, shortly after the events of 1989. A pair of disreputable Russian smugglers are found brutally murdered, and the German police can make no progress. In Moscow, a former KGB agent, Orlov, has vanished, and the Russian secret service sees a connection between the Berlin murder and their man’s disappearance. A shabby functionary, Nikolai Gerasimov, is dispatched to liaise with the police, and to track down their agent. In another narrative thread, a young American art history professor, Francesca McDermott, arrives to see friends in Berlin from her student days, and is soon invited to curate a massive exhibition of Soviet art by Stefan Diederich, now Berlin’s minister of culture. These elements are artfully drawn together by Read into a fast-moving plot that switches cinematically between the streets of Berlin to those of Moscow, with some excursions to a former Soviet base in East Germany.
Read is excellent at evoking the atmosphere of post-Wende Berlin. In particular, he renders the contrast between the capitalist west and the rapidly-changing, but still down-at-heel east with a keen eye for the telling detail. Similarly, his descriptions of quotidian life in the somewhat chaotic Moscow of Boris Yeltsin and his cronies ring true. It was a time when national, and therefore personal identities were under threat, and the novel goes well beyond the normal confines of the spy genre to examine the nature of patriotism and duty. The characters are much more rounded and fully-realised than the usual stereotypes of genre fiction, and their complex motivations are a key aspect of the way the plot develops. Having said that, the usual elements of espionage fiction are here: murder, deceit, sexual tension, a race against time, a satisfying dénouement and an unexpected final twist. The Europe portrayed in this novel from two decades ago has not, in the era of Putin, changed as much as one might imagine. Read’s subtle and thoughtful story stands up well. This is a good example of a literary novel that uses the tropes of genre fiction with delicacy and intelligence.
Read is excellent at evoking the atmosphere of post-Wende Berlin. In particular, he renders the contrast between the capitalist west and the rapidly-changing, but still down-at-heel east with a keen eye for the telling detail. Similarly, his descriptions of quotidian life in the somewhat chaotic Moscow of Boris Yeltsin and his cronies ring true. It was a time when national, and therefore personal identities were under threat, and the novel goes well beyond the normal confines of the spy genre to examine the nature of patriotism and duty. The characters are much more rounded and fully-realised than the usual stereotypes of genre fiction, and their complex motivations are a key aspect of the way the plot develops. Having said that, the usual elements of espionage fiction are here: murder, deceit, sexual tension, a race against time, a satisfying dénouement and an unexpected final twist. The Europe portrayed in this novel from two decades ago has not, in the era of Putin, changed as much as one might imagine. Read’s subtle and thoughtful story stands up well. This is a good example of a literary novel that uses the tropes of genre fiction with delicacy and intelligence.