Rating: 
Summary: Promises much but doesn't quite deliver
Review: After reading the first three chapters, I was completely hooked--this promised to be one of the best mysteries I'd read in a long while. But then the plot languished. The characters became too talky, too self-consciously quirky. Worst of all, the denouement was predictable and the book more or less disintegrated. Still, I would give considerable credit for the opening portion and hope, when I read the author's second book, that the plotting is improved.
Rating:
Summary: Promises much but doesn't quite deliver
Review: After reading the first three chapters, I was completely hooked--this promised to be one of the best mysteries I'd read in a long while. But then the plot languished. The characters became too talky, too self-consciously quirky. Worst of all, the denouement was predictable and the book more or less disintegrated. Still, I would give considerable credit for the opening portion and hope, when I read the author's second book, that the plotting is improved.
Rating: 
Summary: A terrific, well-written whodunit
Review: As a long since escaped native of Raleigh (the scene of the crime), I was fully taken with Ms. Shaber's description of the older Raleigh area. I could feel the oppressive humidity in the air and walked the streets of Cameron Park with her. Although I guessed the identity of the "hard cases", I found this to be an entertaining and well-written first mystery. Can't wait for her next book.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable book.
Review: I enjoyed every page of this book. It is a mature mystery written in a very pleasurable style. Funny remarks, deep observations, characters that are alive and personable - all those features are present in this book making it a real LITERATURE. Not just mystery plot which is perfectly shaped but everything else in this book - political, philosophical, ethical observations and thoughts are very deep and valuable and have life and value of their own, while skillfully blended with a double mystery plot. This feature, in my opinion, is an indicator of a great talent. The book is as interesting and valuable in its other qualities as in the sophisticated and spotless mystery line. The college life line is recognizable and enjoyable. The characters are so alive that there is a sensation of their physical presence. They create intense feelings in a reader. Only great masters in every genre could create really alive characters, persons who can stay and live in literature as real people in life, and only great masters could create the literature works which are read with intense interest as to the thoughts expressed. And also the book is very kind. The points of view of various positive and negative characters are viewed kindly, with appreciation of circumstances that helped created "good" or "bad" types of personalities. The evil of prejudice is shown so skillfully that one realizes deeply how fruitless, how small and unimportant prejudices are in the perspective of time while people may see them as big and justified at the moment and how much real harm and desctruction they can bring into people's lives. The book may serve as an instrument of kindness, an instrument of wisdom - how to treat people as they are with kindness. It is a very interesting book and a very good mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Great, believeable, intelligent characters.
Review: I enjoyed the entire story line. The old murder mixed in with the current lives of the present day folks. I loved Simon, his interpretation of the south. And I also want to hear more about his developing relationship with Julia.
Rating: 
Summary: Feeling of being in the story
Review: I pick up this book at my local library, just before the the auther was going to come speak. I finished in about 2 days and found it a very fun read. Since I live in Raleigh, I have walk on the same sidewalks through the neighborhoods and colleges mentioned in the story. I found myself in the story most the the way through. By that I mean that the stressors or distractions of my world melted away as I was absorbed into Simon's world. I like that in a book.
Rating:
Summary: Feeling of being in the story
Review: I pick up this book at my local library, just before the the auther was going to come speak. I finished in about 2 days and found it a very fun read. Since I live in Raleigh, I have walk on the same sidewalks through the neighborhoods and colleges mentioned in the story. I found myself in the story most the the way through. By that I mean that the stressors or distractions of my world melted away as I was absorbed into Simon's world. I like that in a book.
Rating: 
Summary: Prize-winning disappointment
Review: I picked up this book because it won a Malice Domestic Award from St. Martin's press and because it's set in an area where I used to live. It does a nice job of giving the reader a sense of Raleigh, but it fails utterly as a mystery. The characters -- both the villain and the investigator -- lack believable motivation. Prof. Simon Shaw wants to solve a 70-year-old murder case, well, just because he wants to. The author shows little understanding of the academic world in which the book is set. A tenured professor could not be fired for taking anti-depressants. Any college that tried to do so would find a nasty lawsuit on its hands.The book is riddled with small technical problems. Shaber never met a point-of-view shift that she didn't like, in the middle of a page or a paragraph, it doesn't matter. The editor fell asleep on this one. And at one point the narrator compares a character to "Athena determined to defend Troy from the Greeks." The only problem is that Athena was on the side of the Greeks against the Trojans. Female investigators are often ridiculed for getting themselves into dangerous situations in the next-to-last chapter of the book, only to be rescued by a friendly policeman. Prof. Shaw falls into that cliched trap in this book. And this thing won a prize?
Rating:
Summary: A new mystery author arrives with a great story
Review: Noted Pulitzer Prize winning historian Dr. Simon Shaw is fighting with an
immense bout of depression. The Kenan College, North Carolina professor has
watched his spouse leave him to start a career in New York. Simon struggles
to come to grips with his feelings of inadequacy and desertion. However,
Simon receives a wake up jolt when he is called in to look into a corpse
found during an archeological dig at Bloodsworth House on the campus.
...... Simon believes that the corpse is that of a woman, Anne Bloodsworth, who
disappeared over seventy years ago. He continues to investigate the
disappearance and subsequent murder of Anne. As he does, Simon comes to the
attention of someone who prefers that the Bloodsworth case stay buried. That
assailant will do anything, including murdering Simon in a manner that the
police will declare the professor a suicide victim. The historian best solve
this case soon or he may be the next corpse uncovered seven decades hence.
....... SIMON SAID is an interesting and well written story line with a great
amateur detective, and a fine supporting cast, who provide tasteful and often
times eccentric look into North Carolina. Though the who-done-it has few red
herrings and even fewer suspects, Sarah R. Shaber, winner of a St. Martin's
award, demonstrates much talent and has a promising future in the genre.
......Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Great read--more, more, more
Review: This book was well worth the 3 week wait for my reserved copy at the local library. How soon can we expect more of Simon's exploits? Mystery, humor, and a little romance + intelligence without ego.
|
