Rating: 
Summary: Simply, this is not very good
Review: Steven Saylor is known for his fine (Roman) historical detective series. However with the unfortunately titled 'Twist at the End' (..known as 'Honour the Dead' in Britain) Saylor spins a mystery fable based in his home town of Austin (Texas), circa 1885. He has cleverly recontructed a story surrounding a series of true crimes: the brutal murders of young women over a two year period (..in fact these crimes were never solved). Saylor makes use of some infamous/notorious late 19th century Austin residents to embellish his story. Sadly, these embellishments completely ruin any sense of believability; this is a major "no-no" with any piece of historical fiction. And as other reviewers noted, despite its title no one will find a "twist at the end" here.But all is not lost. The prose flows very well, and the characterizations have some depth to them. I actually enjoyed 'Twist at the End' for its snapshot of 1880s Austin life. Folks interested in Texas history will appreciate the author's obvious detailed research. Bottom line: certainly a half-baked mystery novel. But the overall writing talents of the author and historical perspectives make 'Twist a the End' a surprisingly decent read.
Rating: 
Summary: enjoy it for the history, not the mystery...
Review: Steven Saylor is known for his fine (Roman) historical detective series. However with the unfortunately titled 'Twist at the End' (..known as 'Honour the Dead' in Britain) Saylor spins a mystery fable based in his home town of Austin (Texas), circa 1885. He has cleverly recontructed a story surrounding a series of true crimes: the brutal murders of young women over a two year period (..in fact these crimes were never solved). Saylor makes use of some infamous/notorious late 19th century Austin residents to embellish his story. Sadly, these embellishments completely ruin any sense of believability; this is a major "no-no" with any piece of historical fiction. And as other reviewers noted, despite its title no one will find a "twist at the end" here. But all is not lost. The prose flows very well, and the characterizations have some depth to them. I actually enjoyed 'Twist at the End' for its snapshot of 1880s Austin life. Folks interested in Texas history will appreciate the author's obvious detailed research. Bottom line: certainly a half-baked mystery novel. But the overall writing talents of the author and historical perspectives make 'Twist a the End' a surprisingly decent read.
Rating: 
Summary: THE ALIENIST of the West
Review: Steven Saylor is perhaps, barring the great Caleb Carr, the best historical novelist around today. Known for his Roma Sub Rosa series and his wonderful Gordianus the Finder, Saylor travels forward in time and regales the reader with a murder mystery that is based on real life and a "detective" who is a fellow writer- O. Henry. In terms of plotting and chracterization, Saylor cannot entertain the reader in A TWIST AT THE END as Caleb Carr did in THE ALIENIST. The latter book, a hefty 500+ page tome, gave us an indelible and fascinating look at late 19th century New York city with the kind of perspective that only a gifted historian can give to a lively period in a great metropolis's history. Here, Saylor excels when he confines his novels to ancient Rome. 1884-5 Austin is rocked and caught unawares with what is falsely credited as the nation's first serial murders. The police are of course baffled and William Sydney Porter, the so-called detective in this novel, is more concerned with slacking off and warbling love ditties under the windows of Austin's young ladies than in solving the case. Even after his beloved Eula Philips is brutally murdered, Porter does not do much to advance the investigation. Nor should he. It was a classic case of the wrong protagonist being at the right time, as O. Henry was indeed present in Austin during the murders. Imagine Oscar Wilde being made the hero of a Jack the Ripper novel and you'll see my meaning. A large reason why THE ALIENIST and its sequel worked is because we got a sense that an investigation was being made, that, if not the police someone was doing their best to apprehend the killer. As Saylor rightly posits, the Austin police dragged their heels during this real-life investigation. However, there's no talented and well-characterized task force to pick up the slack and the only thrill of the novel is the cheap one of waiting for the next murder, one that we already know will be committed. Porter makes for a weak, unsatisfying protagonist and the bland characterization is only enlivened by the love between himself and Eula Philips, a real-life victim of "the servant girl annihilators". The recreation of a long-lost Austin is something that I imagine would be fully appreciated only by a native of that city (as Saylor is), since it lacks the recognition and universality of Carr's 19th century NYC. Still, the pacing is even, although dragged out, and the characterization adequate. The lack of reknown for this unsolved series of murders baffles me as it did the author and I believe that the story deserved to be told. Unlike Carr, who does not shy away from the horror of the murders and allows the reader to look over his detectives' shoulders in his two brilliant period pieces, Saylor affects the sensibilities of his genteel characters and gives us virtually no details of the servant girl murders, thereby depriving himself of the chance to more fully immerse the reader as a novel of this length must do. It's also quite obvious from the first half of the book who the killers are. No twist at the end, there. And, aside from the identity of Porter's blackmailer in 1906 New York, which alone doesn't justify the title and the buildup, there *is* no twist at the end. All in all, a journey in which the train ride is more memorable than the destination.
Rating:
Summary: Solid historical mystery; weak ending
Review: Sure, you all know 'The Gift of the Magi' and know that O. Henry is renowned for stories with 'A Twist at the End.' But William Sydney Porter (O. Henry's real name) lived a life as intriguing and filled with twists as many of the characters in his hundreds of classic stories. Steven Saylor's historical mystery is an attempt to fill in some of the blanks, involving Porter in an actual serial murder mystery that took place in Austin, Texas in the mid-1880s. Saylor, best known for his ancient Rome historical mysteries, does a credible job: the Austin historical color brings life into the plot, although too often Porter is secondary to the events and other characters circling around him. Although many other reviewers have compared this to Caleb Carr's excellent period mysteries, I was reminded more of mystery novels starring real historical figures (Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Austen, Groucho Marx) tackling fictional mysteries, or already-established fictional detectives (Sherlock Holmes or Ellery Queen solving the Jack the Ripper murder, Columbo cracking the JFK assassination). Saylor's attempt to mix a real historical person with a true unsolved crime is fresh, although his denouement is weak: the solution comes as no surprise to any of us, and 'the twist at the end' was foreshadowed chapters before. Still, it's an enjoyable, well-written mystery with solid characterization, and I'd love to see Saylor tackle a similar book again--but I hope that he doesn't turn this into a series of 'O. Henry' mysteries! The very best thing that can be said about this novel? I came away from it with a desire to re-read all the old O. Henry stories that I enjoyed in college but haven't picked up since. Although Saylor's a deft hand at setting scene and presenting rogues, he takes a definite back seat to the master himself. If only the *complete* O. Henry were in print! (The complete stories would make an excellent Library of America two-volume set!)
Rating:
Summary: Simply, this is not very good
Review: The negative reviews here are pretty much on target. Long, slow, no reason to really care about the characters, and no mystery. At its core, I think Saylor has a personal interest in Austin, TX and his publisher was willing to let him experiment given that I assume lots of money has been made on the sub rosa series. As a Texan, it is interesting to get a flavor for the place and times. In the end, though, this is supposed to a novel and very little of that works. Given the length of the book, it makes the disappointment a little more costly.
Rating:
Summary: Good history, little mystery
Review: This book -- based on very real historical characters and an all-too-real series of murders in very darn real 19th century Austin, TX -- is a marvel of historical detail. As an Austinite, I can vouch for the fact that you can use the detailed descriptions in this novel to easily retrace all the characters' steps along the streets of modern Austin, right down to the precise locations where the real killings happened (though you'd need a list of the old east-west street names since Austin switched those to a numbered street-name system after the 1880s). For a fan of Texas history, the stunning way Saylor brings 1885 Austin to life rivals the similar recreation of 1836 Texas in Stephen Harrigan's justly praised "The Gates of the Alamo." But I'm not sure how mystery-novel fans who aren't Texas history buffs will like this book, since the whodunit element is weak. I don't read many mystery novels (the lone exception being Tony Hillerman's Chee-Leaphorn novels, which I enjoy for the Native American cultural element), but even for me it was terribly obvious from Chapter 2 or 3 who the guilty party seemed to be. It was so glaring, in fact, that I half-expected it to be a deliberately overplayed red herring to provide a big "twist at the end," but that wasn't the case. So, as historical fiction I heartily recommend this book, but I'm not so sure it stands up as much of a murder mystery.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic mix of history and fiction!
Review: This is an extremely fascinating treatment of the brutal murders of Austin, TX during the 1880's. Just as the book jacket claims, this story is very similar to Caleb Carr's The Alienist. I picked this book out of the shelf on a Friday evening, and had devoured all 462 pages by Saturday night. I am looking forward to Saylor's Rubicon.
| 
