A Place of Hiding

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I'm the sort of reader who must at all costs finish a book, once bought. I am struggling to do so with this one, and I've been a big fan of George. The plot is flat, the characters are flat, and the writing is flat. I get the feeling that George lost interest in this early on (assuming it was she who wrote it, it's far below the caliber of her earlier books). The main protagonists are cliche children of a cliche California tree hugger, Deborah and Simon St James are even more bland and excessively considerate of each other than usual, and everyone is in the throes of childhood traumas tenuously related to the plot (such as it is). And I don't particularly care what happens to any of them.

Rating:
Summary: good and bad
Review: In the latest from Elizabeth George, Simon St. James and wife Deborah travel to Guernsey when a friend of Deborah's is accused of murder. The St. James' have previously been supporting characters, and I enjoyed seeing them take centre stage here, particularly Deborah, who is easily the best written female George has ever created. Deborah begins to question her relationship with Simon and her life goals over the course of the book and I'm interested to see where she might go.

I had been troubled for a while by the misogyny that pervades George's work, particularly in the person of the here-absent Havers, who can't go out the front door without George insulting her clothes. Besides Deborah, every other woman in the book is domineering, clingy, obsessive , or otherwise one-dimensional.

The mystery itself is decidedly less than it appears, as the victim is really a and the murderer's motive is shaky at best.

I did enjoy the information about and obvious affection for Guernsey, although as usual there's too much. Devoted fans will like this, newcomers should read the earlier novels first.

Rating:
Summary: Elizabeth George jumped the shark on this one..
Review: This book was disappointing, in a big way. Elizabeth George has picked her weaker characters, Simon and Deborah, and turns them into detectives to solve a peculiar murder. Unfortunately, the book focuses way too much on the fairly one-dimensional relationship between Simon and Deborah and not nearly enough on solving a mystery. Too much whiny soap opera and not nearly enough plot development. Although there's an explosive ending, the final resolution is way too gimmicky, and I feel that solving the case played second banana to Elizabeth George's attempt to show a really boring relationship from two sides.

It's too bad, because Elizabeth George is ususally pretty good at throwing some plot twists and red herrings in. She also usually has a more interesting set of peripheral characters and suspects, who are quirky and fun, but here she just falls flat.