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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 literallyonly 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: Good Mystery, Lots of Great History
Review: A nice mystery with some well-placed feminist tendencies. And I learned a lot about turn of the century english coal mining - which is actually pretty interesting!
Recommended for mystery buffs or folks looking for a smart read.
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Summary: An addictive mystery-thriller, terrifically rendered"
Review: I positively loved this suspense-filled book. It's been passed from family member to family member like a virus this winter! It is so addictive, and everyone has loved. It's a mystery-thriller by Smith (of Gorky Park fame) set in 1870s in a small coal-mining town in England. The atmosphere is terrifically rendered, the characters are so realized they stick with you long after you put it down. My wife even went back to reread several passages, just to rediscover some of the more clever exposition with the benefit of hindsight. Maybe the best novel I've read all year.
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.
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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: 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.
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