Rating: 
Summary: More than one mystery!!
Review: The setting is the Lancashire coal pits of Victorian England. African explorer Jonathan Blair, legendary to mythical proportions, is summoned home from his beloved Africa for dipping into missionary Bible funds to pay his African assistants. To earn a return trip to Africa from his benefactor, Bishop Lord Hannay, he is commissioned to find the missing local curate, John Maypole, who happens to be engaged to Hannay's daughter, Charlotte.More interested in returning to Africa than determining the whereabouts of Maypole, Blair half-heartedly plunges into the village life of Wigan. He becomes familiar with the local miners and the pit girls who work at the mines sorting coal, a shocking and controversial occupation for a woman of the times. Knowledgeable about mining from his searches for gold in Africa, Blair explores the coal pit where on the same day Maypole disappeared, seventy six miners were killed in an explosion. Did Maypole, while ministering to the miners, perish in the explosion? Given a list of people last seen with Maypole before his disappearance, he questions each in turn, including a beautiful pit girl named Rose Molyneaux who lives quite well in comparison to her income. Blair's familiarity with Rose ruffles the feathers of Rose's boyfriend, Bill Jaxon, a miner with a streak of brutality. Given that Maypole was also friendly with Rose, did Jaxon have anything to do with his disappearance? And then there is Charlotte Hannay. Somber, sharp-tongued, independent, committed to working with fallen women, Charlotte shows little concern for her missing fiance'. Maypole had much to gain from marriage to a wealthy bishop's daughter. However, with each passing day, Blair becomes more and more aware of the fact that no one is really interested in the missing Maypole. So why is he being paid to find him? "Rose" is a mystery within a mystery. It is also beautifully developed with colorful characters and vividly gothic atmosphere. Blair's character is lovable with his dry sense of humor. Martin Cruz Smith incorporates Lancashire dialect in the writing and offers enough knowledge of coal mining to make the book readable without being overly technical. Very enjoyable book!
Rating:
Summary: An Unusual and Riveting Mystery
Review: In "Rose", Martin Cruz Smith demonstrates that he has versatility and depth beyond Renko and the Communist Soviet Union, taking on an ambitious and complex tale set in the dark and gritty coal mining region of Victorian England. As with all of Smith's novels, "Rose" is meticulously researched and rich in historical and cultural detail. Unike many popular authors of today who crank out hastily written and thinly developed book-upon-book to maximize commercial gain, Smith writes infrequently and carefully, choosing each word of dialogue and each scene for accuracy and maximum impact. "Rose" is the tale of Jonathan Blair, a British mining engineer who longs to return to Africa and his African wife and daughter. To earn passage, he is sent to Wigan, a dark and destitute English mining town, to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the fiance of the Bishop's daughter. Smith's tale twists through Wigan in a series of turns - chilling in the bleakness and brutality of this 19th Century coal town and its guarded and mistrustful populace. Blair, suffering and often barely alive with malaria, sweats and feints through a series of beatings, discoveries, dangerous liasons, and ultimate triumph. The characters are richly developed, and as dark as the smokestack-blackened skies of Wigan. This is a highly unusual, intelligent, and satisfying work of fiction. Like all of Smith's novels, you'd be wise not to miss it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Worthy Try
Review: In nineteenth-century England, the American explorer, Blair, is employed by a bishop to investigate the disappearance of a curate in the mining town of Wigan. Reluctantly Blair agrees and begins his detective work half-heartedly, but his interest in the disappearance of the curate is stimulated by the presence in the town of Rose Molyneux, a pit-girl. Was the disappearance of the curate connected with a recent mining disaster, and why is the mining community so tight-lipped about the events? "Rose" is a good attempt at an historical thriller, with much going for it. The author does a decent job in describing industrial England and the perils of mining. He conveys an atmosphere of danger, dirt and despair. He also manages to catch the cadences of northern English dialect. But I've found with many mystery novels that the ending can't quite match the build-up. I thought that "Rose" was no exception to that. Not to spoil the ending for other readers, but it depends so much upon a highly unlikely scenario that I couldn't help feeling somewhat let down. But perhaps the entertainment was in the journey rather than at the point of arrival... G Rodgers
Rating:
Summary: Worthy of Fitzgerald and Hawthorne
Review: Rose takes place in an English coal-mining town during the late 19th century, and tells the story of Blair, an African explorer who has run out of health and money. To get back to his beloved Africa, he is given the charge of finding out what happened to John Maypole, a curate who was engaged to the daughter of his sponsor-the wealthy Bishop Hannay-and who disappeared one day leaving no clues behind. Two things struck me while reading this book. First was the quality of Smith's prose. Repeatedly I found myself thinking, "If Fitzgerald and Hawthorne sat down together to write a mystery, this is what they would write". The book is full of metaphors, most obvious being the coal mine painted as hell, and the town itself (Wigan), an awkward purgatory. Second, Smith's ability to take us to that place and time was remarkable. The amount of research required to write a novel set in a different time and place is daunting, and to be able to collate that research into a well structured story is nearly unfathomable. I saw the town, smelled it, felt the brass tipped clogs crashing into my shin, my ribs when the miners fought. The ending, too, is satisfying, especially as it is unconventional. Don't expect to gasp like you may have when the secret of Scott Turrow's Presumed Innocent was revealed, or when Bruce Willis' character in The Sixth Sense made his revelation, but keep an open eye
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, engrossing, beautifully written
Review: After being blown away by the Akardy Renko trilogy, especially the brilliant final chapter, "Red Square," I had high hopes and anticipation for Smith's next novel. What a huge surprise! Pit girls in a turn of the century English coal mining town? Who would have thought one of the finest and certainly most entertaining novels of 1996 would emerge from this premise? Smith is such a brilliant writer, as I write this, over a year and a half after reading the hardcover, I can still clearly visualize the town of Wigan. His grasp of mise en scene is incredible. A historical novel/mystery like this succeeds or fails on the quality of the world the author creates. I believe Smith more than succeeded. In addition, his characters are sharply drawn and memorable and, as usual, he has created a wonderfully strong and independent female character in Rose. What a movie this could make. Memo to Masterpiece Theatre: A six-hour adaption would be greatly appreciated. As I recall, this book sold about five copies, which is just tragic. Read it, you'll have a great experience!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: A haunted explorer dragged against his will back from nineteenth century Africa to search for a missing young priest in English coal country. Anti-hero Jonathan Blair is of a piece with Cruz Smith's better known protagonist, Moscow detective Arkady Renko. Both are self-effacing, lonely, ironic, funny in a shambling sort of way. It's as though Blair wanted to deploy Renko in a different milieu and realized he needed to change his name and accent. Blair is only one of two major characters. The other is the coal mine: the Hannay deep pit mine, black and hot, without pity, but full of life and death. Martin Cruz Smith took a break from the Renko series, but he can still write amazing stories.
Rating:
Summary: Cinematic
Review: Cruz Smith has a gift for developing a setting- several settings- into the weave of a tale. In `Rose', a sooty, Victorian mystery, the author unfavorably casts the British imperialists against the Ashanti, Gold Coast civilizations where the hero, had earned the name, "Nigger Blair." The disparate lifestyles, coal miner and upper classes, share the same dark, damp Northern English sky and exist entwined in a subterranean and eternal state of dependency. The customs of the times, especially the manner of treating women, and the conditions of the mills and mines for the working poor, are worth the read for their precise, nasty tale of European exploitation. The hero is that sort of flawed, sensual character, rootless, his life a mystery of its own and enormously appealing for his imperfections.
This would make a good movie, (yet I'm told it became a bad one,) it is visual as well as historically full- and the story itself keeps the pace alive.
Rating: 
Summary: Plot falls apart on a defective hinge
Review: Despite the top-notch thriller writing and the Caleb Carr-esque detailed setting, "Rose" falls apart on two essential things: one, the solution to the mystery is obvious almost from the moment Blair arrives in town, and two, the plot hinges on an identity question almost as ridiculous as Clark Kent and Superman, that puts Blair in the Lois Lane role. The plot moves quickly and there's plenty of action, but seasoned mystery readers will be way ahead of the author.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating setting for a fine mystery
Review: Jonathan Blair, a mining engineer, agrees to investigate a disappearence in a gritty mining town in order to earn passage back to the Africa that he loves. He encounters a number of interesting and mysterious characters, including the Rose of the title, whose secret provides a pleasant surprise. Martin Cruz Smith appears to have done his homework well; the evocation of the setting is well-done and there is a lot of fascinating information about mining in Victorian England. Perhaps it is not fair to criticize one book by saying that it is not as good as another, but I was a bit disappointed because of the very high standard Smith set for himself with his series about Russian detective Arkady Renko. "Rose" does not quite rise to that level.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite book from Martin Cruz Smith
Review: This is my favorite book from one of my favorite writers. The book's protaganist, Jonathan Blair, is a fascinating, complex character - so much different from the stock tough guys other mystery writers turn out. Also, the book brings to vivid life a Victorian mining town in all its black, hard detail. Other characters in the book have the same complexity and depth as the book's "hero". The physical action in the book is horryifying in its brutality, but the real thrill of the book is realizing the incredibly hard center of will that Blair carries within him at all times, driving him through hardships and humiliation that will make the reader wince. Just a great book by a great writer.
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