Rating: 
Summary: The Unburied
Review: An interesting mystery that took a while to pique my interest. It wasn't until I read the last sentence that I realized how Palliser managed to successfully keep his readers on their toes, while revealing nothing. I literally went back and re-read passages again and I felt duped like Courtnine himself. I agree with most readers that it takes a while to get into this book and the several layers of story-telling and past and present-day characters became difficult to follow. My advice: don't give up. The ending will surprise you and make it worthwhile.
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Summary: A Parting Place of Ghosts
Review: Charles Palliser is obviously a familiar of ghosts. He has a penchant for weaving together the intricate threads of the Classic Victorian Mystery, ala Wilkie Collins, stark with the emphatic colours of the darkest side of human nature -Indeed- upon the furthest extent anything even the likes of Charles Dickens ever conceived! And his sense of atmosphere is uncanny.Unlike with THE QUINCUNX, which I'd read a few weeks prior to picking up this one, Palliser tenders the gentle reader with a very likeable protagonist: Dr. Edward Courtine. Courtine is a Cambridge scholar who, in 1882, as he nears the age of 50, accepts an invitation from his old school chum, Austin Fickling, after some 20 years of separation stemming from a supposed betrayal. Since Austin resides in the Cathedral Close of the ancient village of Thurchester, Courtine views the visit as more than just the renewal of their friendship -- For, somewhere within the vast labyrinth of the Cathedral Library, there supposedly houses an ancient manuscript confirming the heroism of the -notably obscure- 9th-century Saxon king, Alfred, of whom Courtine has long held a scholarly fascination. When I say that Palliser has "woven," I do mean that in almost the most literal sense: for he has intricately threaded four mysteries into one: the earliest being that of Alfred the Great and the martyr, St. Wulflac. Second is the unsolved 17th-century murder of a Canon-Treasurer, William Burgoyne, inside the Thurchester Cathedral itself. Burgoyne's ghost appears to still haunt certain paths nearby the Cathedral. Then, during the course of Courtine's visit, another murder takes place within the Close: that of a reclusive banker residing at the New Deanery, who was found to have been killed very shortly after Courtine and Fickling had had tea with him. Finally, there's the mystery of Courtine himself - his past, his passions, and his own personal ghosts. And by the time he leaves, some four days after having first arrived in Thurchester, Courtine finds himself less content with his life and how he's lived it. But he's by far a wiser man. Palliser's style of tale-telling is something one must develop a taste for reading. He certainly has a tendency to get too tedious in his detailing, especially of historical elements. There was quite a bit less active motion, especially during the first 1/3 of the novel, than one could have wished there to be. Also, as with THE QUINCUNX, the reader may well be working out in their head a certain portion of the clues given, well before the hero does. Yet, I must say that- though I read through the more than 800 pages of THE QUINCUNX without even the tinge of anxious thirst, nor verily a hunger pain- I had, by the end, found that it roused my brain sufficiently to really think about it, even -perchance- dream about it. Thus, THE UNBURIED coerced its way into my perusal embrace. And there's no denying that I'm very glad that it did.
Rating: 
Summary: Dickens revisited
Review: Charles Palliser once again scores with a crisply written English and stylishly legal/murder 'who done it'! Thrusting the reader into the 19th century, Palliser's haunting prose is vivid and enthralling. This is not a book for those who do not like twists and turns, although this book is easier than Pallisers masterpiece, The Quincunx (which I have read 5 times at last count!). Palliser uses intriguing techniques to tell his story - an editors Foreward followed at the end by an editors Afterword, in which the mystery is more clearly defined. There is a ghost-story, tales of King Alfred, and even a fairy tale thrown in for good (or should I say bad?) measure. It's a wonderful mix! In this book, you can feel the English countryside - its fogs and mists and rains and gloom-laden scenery; its strange mixture of suspicious and creepy characters. It is a quintessentially English novel - every page evokes emotions; I found myself drifting off into the English countryside I once knew well so vivid are the descriptions. This is a book to be read in one sitting, preferably beginning late afternoon, settling into a cozy chair by a roaring log fire, glass of red wine to hand. As darkness descends, and, with luck, the rains begin and the winds rattle the windowframes, the added atmosphere will add to the excellent story-telling. Savor the wonderful language. It is a pleasure. Its the English language that should be - like Mervyn Peake and J R R Tolkien. Enjoy! And, for those who have not read The Quincunx I urge you to rush to read it. The Quincunx is truly sensational!
Rating:
Summary: A Victorian Feast
Review: I discovered The Unburied in the sale table at my local bookstore and decided it looked interesting. I found it one of the most fascinating books that I have read this year. I do enjoy reading books that are set in the Victorian era and this was an exceptional example. I took my time reading it because I wanted to lose myself in the language and the wonderful characterization. Mr. Palliser knew whereof he wrote. I felt confident that I was getting a true picture of an English cathedral town of the period with all the petty conflicts between inhabitants. I am a fan of historical mysteries, but many of them do not pay a lot of attention to historical accuracy. Not so in this case. I could almost smell the scent of ancient buildings, old books and manuscripts and coal fires! I look forward to reading the Quincunx.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Short Story Masquerading as a Novel
Review: If you're looking for a new take on the Victorian Christmas ghost story (as this novel claims to be), well, this may not be the book for you. Palliser takes his time setting up this tale, in which the ghosts are more figurative than anything else. The first 200 pages or so are filled with plot lines that seem to go nowhere and tales that have you moving from the 9th to the 17th to the 19th centuries. Quite confusing, and, frankly, rather dull. Had this been a short story, it would be quite good, but as a nearly 400 page novel it is simply tedious.
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Summary: How many secrets can be crammed into a small town????
Review: In October 2002 I started reading The Unburied after picking it up, along with The Quincunx, from a local bookstore...deciding to indulge in the thinner, double spaced Unburied before I dived into Quincunx, and get a taste for the author. Like another reviewer here, I read perhaps 150 pages before I put the book down. It didn't seem to be going anywhere...and was dryer than the bones of a corpse uncovered in the second half of the book. In September 2003, I picked the book up again, and gave it another chance...and read it in four days. There are far too many plot twists to reveal in fully reviewing this book...plot twists that unfold like a stone wrapped in a blanket; the soft, fuzzy layer that we put over events too painful to deal with peeled away to reveal the coarse, jagged stone of truth underneath. The storyline: Edward Courtine arrives in a small Victorian town at the behest of his boyhood school chum, Austin Fickling, after more than twenty years of separation. Courtine arrives with dual purposes; that of reviving his friendship with Austin and finally laying to rest a two-decade old embroilment between them involving Edward's young wife....but not what you would think; and to search the library of the Cathedral that Austin teaches at for an ancient manuscript which might shed new light, and possibly disavow previously documented stories of Alfred the Great, Courtine's favored historical figure. Austin extends this invitation for unscrupulous reasons; hinted at by his late-night meanderings through the darkened streets and back alleys surrounding the Cathedral and nearby houses in the Upper and Lower 'Close' as they are called. Courtine is drawn to an old inscription, purportedly shedding light on another mystery of the town; that of the rivalry, fight, death, and disappearance of two figures from the town's history involved in the restoration of the Cathedral long ago. Further enhancing the cloak of gloom and doom already loured over the town is another murder, that of one Mr. Stonex, who resides in the house next to the stone bearing the inscription that Courtine reads....only minutes after Courtine and Fickling finish having tea with the man, a notorious recluse who only opens his doors three times per day, to allow the entrance and exit of his housekeeper, and to take his evening meal. All of these plotlines are woven together in a 400 page treat which invites comparisons to Umberto Eco and other scholarly authors. Charles Palliser manages to tell a breathtaking tale of murder and duplicity; of grief and despair; of horrors of the body and the mind; and not once was it all too graphic, or at all undigestible. Charles Palliser has created a dark, gloomy Victorian mystery with The Unburied....well worth the time to read...even if it takes other readers longer than the four days it took me.
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Summary: Victorian Mysteries
Review: More than a simple Victorian pastiche, The Unburied is something of a conversation between eras and viewpoints in the tradition of A.S. Byatt and Umberto Eco. Clearly out of his depth historian/narrator Dr. Edward Courtine effectively shares his interest in the past of the English cathedral town of Thurchester even as academic skullduggery, past betrayals, and ghost stories swirl about him. For a timid academic, Courtine makes a surpringly charismatic protagonist, his account inadvertently making clear his limitations as professor and detective as events outpace him, his historical excursions into Thurchester's past fascinating, and his hinted upon past with old school chum Austin increasingly intriguing. The Unburied stumbles only toward the end, where it devolves into a fairly straightforward murder mystery, the solution of which is far less interesting than our narrator, who is abandoned in a surprisingly ineffective use of the Wilkie Collins' tradition of using multiple narratives to wrap up a mystery. But despite the lackluster wind-up, this is an atmospheric and entertaining story, using styles of another era to great effect.
Rating: 
Summary: Suspense and complexity, but too much of a good thing?
Review: Palliser's prose is fluent, the cast of characters interesting, and the plot gripping.
However, I found myself wishing for a more straightforward story. The narrative jumps between the 1910's, 1870's, 1850's, 1640's and the early Middle Ages. People in more or less obscure positions in Church and School make an appearance: headmasters, deans, canons, vergers, precentors, and others. A lengthy tease with many hints precedes the final relevation, which spoiled the surprise for me.
But, then, Palliser's style is supposed to be Victorian, and maybe I shouldn't complain that the Unburied is stuffed with detail.
Rating:
Summary: Too disjointed for my taste...
Review: The plot of The Unburied intrigued me so much that I started reading this book as soon as I bought it. At first, I thought the writing was quite imaginative. Charles Palliser has a rather vivid and compelling imagination. But as I continued to read I noticed that this novel lacked plot and characterization. There are so many dead ends and unimportant pieces of information that I felt lost. I don't always have problems with miscellaneous information, but it appears that the clues and so-called twists were thrown in for no reason other that to lengthen the book. At the end, I ended up closing the book with the intention of never opening it again. The writing is too disjointed to be enjoyed. Disappointing...
Rating:
Summary: The Unburied
Review: The story is a whacky, weird book that a lot of people would enjoy.I would say that a lot of people can relate themselves to the main characters of this book.The way people's minds want to go figure out a problem or they are just so curious about something they want to go figure it out.The main character's name is Julia and she has some dreams about a strange character,who haunts her in her dreams.But she recognized the background of where the strange being was at in her dreams. It was where she grew up,in Little Rock,Arkansas. I could relate to Julia because she wants to go see if this thing is real and that's propably what I would have done.My favorite part of the story is where Julia finally gets to confront the strange being and wait...I will let you read it for yourself to find out what happens. I liked the book because it is not at all predictable.This book makes you want to read more and more untill you get to the end.I heard on the downlow that there is going to be a sequel to this book. I would recommend this book to almost everybody but I would say about 14 and up should read this because it's pretty hard to follow.Some parts were a little gory so I would say mostly males should read this book.
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