Read the first 10% or so when I was given it as a free ebook with some subscription or other. Exceedingly meh. The tone was really off � not funny, noRead the first 10% or so when I was given it as a free ebook with some subscription or other. Exceedingly meh. The tone was really off � not funny, not cheerful, not quirky, not interesting at all, though it was clearly trying to be all of those things. Terribly laboured and faux almost everything.
Definitely need to look gift horses in the mouth in future as I don’t like to leave a book unfinished (despite what my “currently reading� shelf might suggest!) Also, note to self, I don’t really like cosy mysteries (or attempts at cosy mysteries) unless they are really good examples of the genre....more
Pacy, light yet authoritative, with a delightfully informal tone, this is a tremendously good guide to reading the gospel of Mark. Rather than gettingPacy, light yet authoritative, with a delightfully informal tone, this is a tremendously good guide to reading the gospel of Mark. Rather than getting bogged down in the nitty-gritty of word studies and syntax and whatnot, Sach and Hiorns crack through the gospel indicating themes, structures and literary features, and showing how to use various hermeneutical/analytical tools to get at the meaty bits. Not a commentary so much as an introductory handbook, and just perfect for the general non-specialist who wants to understand more about Mark and be encouraged to read and explore for him- or herself....more
This is a splendid commentary � detailed but not fussy, nicely written but not too flash or wordy. Really solid stuff with deep, deep research behind This is a splendid commentary � detailed but not fussy, nicely written but not too flash or wordy. Really solid stuff with deep, deep research behind it. Disposes nicely with some of the silly academic stuff that gets published in theological journals and monographs. Edward’s does hold to a slightly odd view that there was once a now lost ending to Mark � whereas it has always seemed to me to be a feature that Mark ends on that cliffhanger at the empty tomb. It propels the reader to think further and propels the contents of the text out into the real world.
Mark’s gospel is clearly a literary masterpiece or inestimable cultural and religious worth, and it’s great to have had this commentary on my desk as I have worked through the latter chapters in some depth....more
Nothing is quite as it seems in a Miss Marple story, which does mean that you usually know who didn't do it (i.e. the obvious person, or the first perNothing is quite as it seems in a Miss Marple story, which does mean that you usually know who didn't do it (i.e. the obvious person, or the first person to be arrested). Somehow Miss Marple manages not to be smug. There is something cold and hard beneath the crochet.
1. Evil in Small Places (Lucy Foley) Solid, fairly cosy, a moral or two within.... Visitng a friend in Sussex in the middle of a local, souped-up quasi Guy Fawkes night -- and forced to attend a choir practice against her will -- Miss Marple stumbles upon bloody murder.
2. The Second Murder at the Vicarage (Val McDermid) OK, a cute homage to the Christie canon, but rather rushed at the end. Perhaps that is inevitable for shorter crime stories that are essentially compressed whodunnits.
3. Miss Marple Takes Manhattan (Alyssa Cole) Placing Miss Marple in New York is a very successful move. Nothing is what is seems or even what it 'ought' to be.
4. The Unravelling (Natalie Haynes) OK, and a nice enough tone, but deeply implausible both in its central conceit and in the motivation for the crime.
5. Miss Marple's Christmas (Ruth Ware) Very trad, and does exactly what it sets out to do. I suppose one can't ask for more, even though it did feel a bit tired (but perhaps that was just me... too many Miss Marple stories all at once does get a bit tiring. Not Miss Marple's fault of course, she is always good value. But perhaps also a little too good to be true?)
6. The Open Mind (Naomi Alderman) Starts at an Oxford high table. Fairly entertaining, but whodunnit was fairly predictable, though hard to explain! MacGuffin makes a decisive appearance before having his own rug pulled out...
7. The Jade Empress (Jean Kwok) Fairly decent, and the cruise ship was a good choice. Clunckily wrapped up, but nobody’s perfect! [Also, I appreciate that writers � give or take � write about what they know, but did the Chinese-American author have to write the story with Chinese characters?]
8. A Deadly Wedding Day (Dreda Say Mitchell) Very clever, and a good setting� just terribly laboured in parts of the text itself, especially the lines about the superiority-of-Caribbean-mores, and with more than its fair share of has tell-not-show. [See note on chapter 7 � did this author have to write the story with the Caribbean characters?]
9. Murder at the Villa Rosa (Elly Griffiths) Quite different to the other entries, both as a story and in the quality of the writing. Evocative, ringing echoes, very few clunkers, dreamlike, unnerving in an unassuming way. I must say I was impressed, given how naff was the Elly Griffiths novel I read a couple of years ago.
10. The Murdering Sort (Karen M. McManus) Why, oh why do authors put their stories in the present tense, I wonder. It sounds super weird, especially when it's narrated in the first person. That aside, this was a clever story. A younger generation of Miss Marple's family gets in on the action, set in an old-school elite part of the USA.
11. The Mystery of the Acid Soil (Kate Mosse) Very well done, albeit predictable. The atmosphere and tone were spot on.
12. The Disappearance (Leigh Bardugo) Many reviewers seem to dislike this story, but I loved it. It made me think of how Christie treated Poirot at the end. And it was very nicely written....more
The ghost stories and the final [genre deleted, no spoilers please] story were the best. The opening one probably being the highest value creepy shortThe ghost stories and the final [genre deleted, no spoilers please] story were the best. The opening one probably being the highest value creepy short story ever written.
The crime stories were ok, though the longest one was rather too depressing. RR is certainly good at removing sympathy from most characters, but I did feel that a degree more comeuppance was called for. I guess I am just a bit of a moralist!...more
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