Dark Specter (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

Rating:
Summary: Creepy commentary
Review: Dibdin knows how to capture your attention. He definitely knows how to draw you in. Each chapter leaves you wanting to read "just one more" as when you guiltily reach for "just one more" of your favorite sins. Felt the book sagged near the end-- too much quick tidying- but even the ending was unique. It ends with a bang.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I've read a few Michael Dibdins lately because Ruth Rendell (aka Barbara Vine) recommends him. He can be an excellent writer, but this book was pedestrian in both writing and plot. I saw Los's solution to "How can a just God allow terrible things to happen to good people" very early on, and read to the end only to see if I was right. The main character was naive to the point of idiocy, thinking he could pay a social visit to what was obviously a cult leader. I give it two stars only because 1 star should be reserved for those who truly can't write.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I've read a few Michael Dibdins lately because Ruth Rendell (aka Barbara Vine) recommends him. He can be an excellent writer, but this book was pedestrian in both writing and plot. I saw Los's solution to "How can a just God allow terrible things to happen to good people" very early on, and read to the end only to see if I was right. The main character was naive to the point of idiocy, thinking he could pay a social visit to what was obviously a cult leader. I give it two stars only because 1 star should be reserved for those who truly can't write.

Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: I've read and enjoyed other books by this author (i.e. Aurelio Zen mysteries). This effort, however, is terrible. The main character is a naive dope who is totally unlikeable. You don't identify with him enough, or for that matter dislike him enough, to care about what happens to him. The plot is pedestrian and predictable. I wouldn't have finished it were it not such a short book.

I'm truly surprised that this author, who has demonstrated the ability to write entertaining books, failed so completely this time around. This book regresses to the level of a first effort by an unskilled writer, simply imitating the conventions and plot devices of the genre...

Yuck!

Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: I've read and enjoyed other books by this author (i.e. Aurelio Zen mysteries). This effort, however, is terrible. The main character is a naive dope who is totally unlikeable. You don't identify with him enough, or for that matter dislike him enough, to care about what happens to him. The plot is pedestrian and predictable. I wouldn't have finished it were it not such a short book.

I'm truly surprised that this author, who has demonstrated the ability to write entertaining books, failed so completely this time around. This book regresses to the level of a first effort by an unskilled writer, simply imitating the conventions and plot devices of the genre...

Yuck!

Rating:
Summary: Creepy commentary
Review: Yes, the ending is ridiculous, but it may be a commentary on the genre. To me it seemed calculated to make us think about the interest in the morbid which has kept us turning pages. I have been wrong before, however. Maybe he was just trying to write something that would look good on a movie screen.

The writing was more pedestrian than that of the other books of his I have read, perhaps because he was writing in a new dialect. He does do a pretty good job of writing in American.