The House of Women (Crime Line)

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: My first foray into Alison Taylor's books. I listened to the audio book version - having it read by Steve Hodson with a Welsh lilt made it all the more enjoyble. I will be searching out more from this author.

Rating:
Summary: Not the queen of syntax
Review: This is the first Alison Taylor novel I have purchased and likely to be the last. It's hard to believe she has received enough support from her first 2 novels to warrant a third! House of Women is not an easy read. The text does not flow and syntax is ever changing in the character's dialogue so it's difficult to imagine them as real people. A typical paragraph of dialogue begins with a character speaking proper english only to switch to slang expressions a few sentences later. The true essence of the character is probably somewhere in the middle but never quite conveyed. Even the mannerisms described seem to detract from the general mood Ms. Taylor appears to be attempting to create and do nothing to bring the characters alive. Each time I opened this book, hoping it would become progressively better, I found myself becoming distracted or simply skimming over the bad dialogue and choppy scenes just to get a feel for the plot. A third of the way through the book I decided it wasn't worth the struggle to see if the plot was any better than the writing...

Rating:
Summary: More than a mystery
Review: This is the first book I've read by Alison Taylor, but probably not the last. She's a very ambitious writer in that she's not afraid to spend a lot of time developing the characters and settings, while throwing in a healthy dose of philosophy, social commentary, and Welsh history. Her characters are wonderfully fleshed out and the reader has the opportunity to watch them become changed as the drama of the novel affects their lives. Each scene of the book is carefully and poetically conveyed. And her thoughts on the human condition; racism, slavery, poverty, addiction, motherhood are all well considered and interesting to read. Alison Taylor does justice to the genre.