Rose

Rating:
Summary: All the 10's are Right
Review: There are a lot of 10 reviews on this page and I must agree with them all. For a book to make the top of my list it must have a plot that is intriguing and credible, a cast of characters that are rich and in whom you can not help but invest emotions, a special hook or two to keep you turning pages, historical or scientific information that is new and interesting, and a sorrow when the last page is turned. Rose had them all. A sequel in Africa, please, Martin

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book--interesting plot; superior characterizations
Review: I've enjoyed Smith's Russian mysteries, and have been impressed with his adept presentation of contemporary Russians. He surpasses his previous work in _Rose_, a mystery of sorts set in Victorian Lancashire. The plot centers on Blair, a mining engineer late from Africa, and his assignment to locate a missing clergyman in an English coal mining town. Blair is a complex and troubling man, concerned largely with returning to African exploration, yet his stay in Wigan becomes a fascinating set of discoveries, centered around a woman who works in the coal pits. All the principle characters are beautifully drawn, interesting as individuals even, perhaps particularly, when they are not attractive. The book is sympathetic, deep and beautifully written, and the end is thoroughly satisfying.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've read in years!
Review: Rose is an outstanding book. Smith's previous book, Gorky Park, has been one of my personal favorites of all time for it's story line, character development, believability, detail, and rich texture. Rose does not disappoint and ranks right up there with Gorky Park in my opinion. Rose's Blair, like Gorky Park's Renko, is a likable, decent, competent, and fallible human who is very appealing in the main role. The detail and rich period texture of Rose is awesome. This book held my attention easily and as in other Smith books I didn't want it to end. I thought I had the story figured out by mid-book but Smith faked me out. Great ending. The book reminded me in many ways of Shogun, another personal favorite. Well done Mr. Smith. Please, please, keep writing

Rating:
Summary: Excellent history, decent mystery
Review: Smith's portrayal of 19th century coal mining in the UK, as well as his asides about African exploration, is brilliant I have done a lot of reading, and some writing, on these topics, and I could find only one tiny anachronism -- aspirin was not introduced until 1899. The plotting is not quite up to Smith's previous works, but I found it sufficiently engrossing that I read the book in one long marathon. I could not disagree more with the other reviewer on this site

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: This is the only book I've read by Martin Cruz Smith that I could not finish. I found the characters unlikeable and the story very dreary. I completed about one eighth of the book when I decided not to continue. A major disappointment as I have ALWAYS enjoyed the author's other novels

Rating:
Summary: Fine book
Review: Great depiction of a time and place. I got so involved in the plot that as soon as I finished it I had to go back and read it a second time for its rich texture

Rating:
Summary: Great mystery. Great dialogue. Another classic of the genre.
Review: Just as Shibumi by Trevanian was a treasure trove of information in the art of spelunking, Martin Cruz Smith brings the mystery, adventure and learning experience to his readers in that same tradition. The excitement of the story and the character of Blair, are not diminished by the allusions to classic literature or the information and insight into a little known part of the industrial revolution; the workings and hazards in the mining industry of the nineteenth century, which alone makes it worth reading. I give "Rose" an A+.

Rating:
Summary: How does one person have so much talent?
Review: Few American writers, and few from anywhere, can completely change the genre of their work and succeed. Here is a man who writes brilliant international political crime thrillers and yet can step into the 19th century and provide contextual language which would make you believe he lived there then. Run to amazon.com with your fingers and order this book. I was unable to put it down

Rating:
Summary: A dark and atmospheric mystery of Victorian England
Review: Martin Cruz Smith leaves modern Russia ("Gorky Park" & "Polar Star") for Victorian England in his latest novel. Jonathan Blair, shaking with Malaria, and with literally only the sweaty shirt on his back, goes to his employer, a stately and wealthy bishop to ask to be sent back to his beloved Africa. Blair, a mining engineer, had been accused of dipping into the Bible fund on a previous expedition and sent home in disgrace. He is sent to Wigan, a coal mining town, to find the missing curate John Maypole who happens to be the Bishop's future son-in-law.Blair is promised employment on the next expedition to Africa if he is successful in locating the young Maypole. Once in Wigan, Blair finds that not everyone is anxious to solve the mysterious disappearance of the clergyman. Rose Molyneaux, a tough but lovely "pit girl" holds the many of the answers to the mystery as well as the attentions of Blair. "Rose" is a rich and layered novel written much like an old masters painting. Blair's malaria attacks, the coal dust, the closeness of the mine tunnels; it's all there to be felt and experienced. Martin Cruz Smith is a master of atmosphere and in his lastest book takes the reader to the dark, dusty, sweaty coal mines of Wigan England in 1872. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A spellbinding, atmospheric novel of Welsh coal mines
Review: A departure from his excellent Russian novels (Gorky Park, Polar Star, Red Square), 'Rose' is set in Victorian England in the coal mining village of Wigan.

Sentence by sentence, this is a book to savor - gritty and graceful, dark and witty, brutal and bracing. Ostensibly a detective story, the plot is seamlessly integrated with character, place and time - so perfectly that myriad details will only be recognized as clues in delighted retrospect.

But the plot recedes behind its protagonist, Jonathan Blair. Blair himself has little interest in his mission - the search for a missing curate - forced upon him by his patron, Bishop Hannay, worldly churchman, aristocrat and owner of the Wigan coal mines.

Blair's drive is his desire to return to Africa and his Anglo-African daughter. A mining engineer hired to map gold country in Africa, Blair was yanked in disgrace after he appropriated church funds to pay his workers. Expedition leaders were expected to make up a shortfall of funds from their own pockets but Blair, no gentleman, possesses no private income.

An American by upbringing, Blair was born in Wigan. His father was unknown and his mother was buried at sea on the journey to America, leaving him in the care of an American mining engineer named Blair. A small child at the time, Blair recalls no other name.

Bishop Hannay has promised him Africa in return for finding John Maypole, the zealous curate who was engaged to Hannay's ascerbic daughter Charlotte. Not until he arrives in Wigan does Blair discover that Maypole disappeared on the same day 76 men were killed in a mine explosion of mysterious origin.

Blair's hatred of things British, particularly the aristocracy and the grueling fates of laborers, brings an aura of dread and reluctance to all his encounters and descriptions.

His soul imbues his observations with beauty, as when he arranges to go into the mine: "In dark fields on either side Blair could make out miners in the dark by the glow of their pipes and the mist of their breath. The fields smelled of manure, the air of ash. Ahead, from a high chimney, issued a silvery column of smoke that at its very peak was colored by dawn."

Miners descend before daylight, ascend after sunset, spending their day a mile below the surface. Seen through Blair's observant eyes the mine is riveting, claustrophobic and tense. There are so many ways to die down there.

Blair pursues his investigation among the pit girls (the scandal of Britain in their pants and freedom) becoming fascinated by one, Rose, whose effect on the curate may have lead to his death.

His dogged if unwilling persistence crosses nearly everyone in a town rife with secrets, and brutal in defending them. Blair insinuates himself into miners' lives, the do-gooder activities of Charlotte and her naive curate, the maneuvering of mine owners. He explores abandoned tunnels, and pokes around in the rubble of the explosion. A fight with Rose's beau, a man who excels in a form of kick-boxing in clogs fitted with brass studs, nearly ends in his death.

All of these activities lead him closer to the curate's fate but more important, they pull the reader into a world completely alien, involve us in its sensations and smells, longings and loves, dirt and danger.

This is a book to read slowly, for the tactile beauty of its prose and the power of the world it evokes.