MikeR wrote:
>i struggled to get thru _the alienist_. i guess it
was a good book but >it
>just didn't do much for me. too much of a sense of
drama on his >part and
>too much apathy on mine.
I can see that, though I did think the book was decent.
There's always a risk of trying too hard with that high
style
>i haven't read mark graham's books. why did you not
like the series?
Good concept, mediocre execution. Too many unnecessary plot
twists and not very compelling characters.
a few other historical HBs that occurred to me -
"The Bottoms" by Joe Lansdale (East Texas in the Depression;
frankly I thought it was a pastiche of "To Kill a
Mockingbird" and various Faulkner novels with a lame serial
killer plot thrown in, but most people seem to love
it);
"River of Darkness" by Rennie Airth (British police inspector
recently returned from WWI combat) - haven't read this so I
don't know if it's any good;
Charles Todd also writes a series with a similar premise to
the Airth book; not sure how HB they are overall but I read
the first in the series "A Test of Wills," which was at least
on the grisly side for an English village mystery; the "hook"
I guess is that the hero is actually suffering from
shellshock and has internal conversations with a private who
died under his command; I *think* this is supposed to be
psychological rather than supernatural. Anyway, I get the
impression the series has evolved in a fairly hard-boiled
direction - to me it was just weird, but I keep seeing rave
reviews for the more recent books in the series. Either
they've gotten better or I just didn't get it.
Carrie
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