The Death of an Ardent Bibliophile

Rating:
Summary: The Divil with It!
Review: The book opens with the detective, McGarr, being let into the murder house. A woman talks him through the house, chatting constantly without any interrogation. Arriving at the corpse, they stand about talking for another 10 pages about the dead man and her theory that he was stealing priceless books from the library where he worked. Although the author tells us the corpse is swollen and putrifying, our characters must have nerves and noses of steel. Later on, McGarr and his crew watch blue videos starring the late corpse. The chatty lady watches with them. (Is this typical of how Irish police operate? Hey - let's watch dirty movies with a witness!) This brings us up to about page 80. No other non-police character has appeared. Hmmm - wonder whodunnit? Well, if the novel doesn't succeed as a mystery or a police procedural, maybe it's full of Irish character and atmosphere. Oops - the author forgot to include them too! Most of the characters speak the way Americans expect the Irish to speak - they really aren't allowed to be human, just pleasant caricatures. The whole novel seems a lazy effort.

Rating:
Summary: The Divil with It!
Review: The book opens with the detective, McGarr, being let into the murder house. A woman talks him through the house, chatting constantly without any interrogation. Arriving at the corpse, they stand about talking for another 10 pages about the dead man and her theory that he was stealing priceless books from the library where he worked. Although the author tells us the corpse is swollen and putrifying, our characters must have nerves and noses of steel. Later on, McGarr and his crew watch blue videos starring the late corpse. The chatty lady watches with them. (Is this typical of how Irish police operate? Hey - let's watch dirty movies with a witness!) This brings us up to about page 80. No other non-police character has appeared. Hmmm - wonder whodunnit? Well, if the novel doesn't succeed as a mystery or a police procedural, maybe it's full of Irish character and atmosphere. Oops - the author forgot to include them too! Most of the characters speak the way Americans expect the Irish to speak - they really aren't allowed to be human, just pleasant caricatures. The whole novel seems a lazy effort.