When the Wind Blows

Rating:
Summary: Overall: Satisfying (with reservations)
Review: Engaging and well executed, for the most part. The central characters are well conceived and (almost) fully formed. There a few lines of brilliant dialog. In fact, the only real weakness began towards the end, after the identity of the evil antagonist is revealed. From that point on, it became difficult for me to suspend disbelief. The lengthy denouement was surprisingly clumsy and heavy handed, and one transition I remember (from earlier in the book) must have given the author nightmares. Still, even though the transition was awkward, it did maintain story continuity effectively. I actually liked the book more than my comments might suggest. I'll definitely look for Mr. Fox's other books.

Rating:
Summary: STRANGE NOVEL!
Review: I agree one hundred percent with most of the other reviewers when it comes to When The Wind Blows. It starts out really well, and I was very impressed. But later on and all the way until the ending it was very unbelievable. The whole town seemed to hate the main characters throughout the whole novel and that made it very hard to decipher who was the killer, who held a grudge, and who was Mark, the main character's real parents. Also at the end of the novel, the explanation of why Mark had a death certificate was not explained well AT ALL! Another thing that I didn't care for was that the conclusion of the novel was about 60 pages long. I agree with one of the readers when she said that this novel could have been about 100 pages shorter. So I didn't really care for When The Wind Blows at all, but I loved ALL FALL DOWN, Zach's early novel. I hope Cradle and All is better, I HAVE FAITH IN YOU MR. FOX!

Rating:
Summary: How Bad Did I Hate This Book? Let Me Tell You...
Review: I agree with many of the previous reviews of WHEN THE WIND BLOWS--the book has flaws. For one thing, most of the members of the police force in the little town of Harmony were really stereotyped, like the typical southern cops in a TV melodrama. Why a town that totally relies on its tourist trade for survival would have a bunch of thugs as its law enforcers stretches the credibility factor. The cops were a lot of fun to dislike, but would have been more believable had at least a couple of the members of the force been more sincere in carrying out their duties as public servants.

Events fall into place too fast and too easily. Mark Ritter goes from being a man bereaving his mother's death to finding out secrets buried and hidden from his past within the time span of a few days. It's like the town of Harmony had been in limbo for 30 years until he showed up to set them in motion.

One of the really annoying factors in this novel was the author's problem in trying to decide what to do with Ritter's 10-year-old daughter while the man was hunting down clues to his past. In most scenes, the child was in the way of the story. The common device the author used to remind us of the girl's presence was to have her complaining for ice cream, whining to go horseback riding, etc. This, in reality, is what most children would do to get some attention after being subjected to hours of listening to adults talk about topics often too mature for a 10-year-old's ears. But her presence became annoying when I wanted to see the plot advance and then have to stop for an ice cream break for the child. To solve this technical problem, the author should have found a logical way to keep the girl from appearing in just about every scene, i.e., creating a nice motherly character to baby-sit her (there HAD to be someone without an evil thought even in Harmony). Instead, her father left her with virtual strangers or let her wander off by herself, even after he discovered the child's life had been threatened.

And yes, the ending was too long and cumbersome, finally all tied up in ribbon like a Christmas package.

Despite its weaknesses and inconsistencies, I had a great time reading this novel.. Mr. Fox has a knack with suspense that, at two o'clock in the morning, kept me saying, "One more chapter and then I'll go to sleep." Needless to say, I read the book in two days. And that's what a suspense novel should be. Right?

Rating:
Summary: Faulty, but ...
Review: I agree with many of the previous reviews of WHEN THE WIND BLOWS--the book has flaws. For one thing, most of the members of the police force in the little town of Harmony were really stereotyped, like the typical southern cops in a TV melodrama. Why a town that totally relies on its tourist trade for survival would have a bunch of thugs as its law enforcers stretches the credibility factor. The cops were a lot of fun to dislike, but would have been more believable had at least a couple of the members of the force been more sincere in carrying out their duties as public servants.

Events fall into place too fast and too easily. Mark Ritter goes from being a man bereaving his mother's death to finding out secrets buried and hidden from his past within the time span of a few days. It's like the town of Harmony had been in limbo for 30 years until he showed up to set them in motion.

One of the really annoying factors in this novel was the author's problem in trying to decide what to do with Ritter's 10-year-old daughter while the man was hunting down clues to his past. In most scenes, the child was in the way of the story. The common device the author used to remind us of the girl's presence was to have her complaining for ice cream, whining to go horseback riding, etc. This, in reality, is what most children would do to get some attention after being subjected to hours of listening to adults talk about topics often too mature for a 10-year-old's ears. But her presence became annoying when I wanted to see the plot advance and then have to stop for an ice cream break for the child. To solve this technical problem, the author should have found a logical way to keep the girl from appearing in just about every scene, i.e., creating a nice motherly character to baby-sit her (there HAD to be someone without an evil thought even in Harmony). Instead, her father left her with virtual strangers or let her wander off by herself, even after he discovered the child's life had been threatened.

And yes, the ending was too long and cumbersome, finally all tied up in ribbon like a Christmas package.

Despite its weaknesses and inconsistencies, I had a great time reading this novel.. Mr. Fox has a knack with suspense that, at two o'clock in the morning, kept me saying, "One more chapter and then I'll go to sleep." Needless to say, I read the book in two days. And that's what a suspense novel should be. Right?

Rating:
Summary: I wish I'd read these reviews before reading the book....
Review: I found the actions of the characters in this book totally unbelievable to the point of being annoying. This really got in the way of what could have been an enjoyable book. The corker for me was when Mark and his daughter visited one of the shops in town and he let her wander around the store on her own... after noticing that the town pedophile was also there. Come on, what parent would do that? Just the fact that this man kept ignoring his child through the entire story turned me off.

Rating:
Summary: This book sounded very interesting, but failed to deliver.
Review: I would like to assure Lee Gruenwald that I read the right "When the Wind Blows", not the title by the same name of a different author & I still don't like it. I thought the premise sounded intriguing on the jacket, but was extremely disappointed in it. Like other readers have reported, it is over long & the main character very unappealing. It would have seemed much more likely that he would be puzzled by all the revelations about his past than angry. The concept of the "town gone bad" with all those citizens & police in a virtual conspiracy against the outsider is pretty ludicrous & unbelievable, too. To me, this was a bad,bad book, not worth spending time reading. I won't look for other work by this author, that's for sure.

Rating:
Summary: I wish I'd read these reviews before reading the book....
Review: In 1998, Mark Ritter and his 7-year-old daughter leave their comfortable Seattle home for a quest to search Mark's roots. A widower since his daughter was an infant, Mark feels especially determined to share what little he knows of his own background with her. Adopted in infancy, Mark's adoptive mother dies, leaving behind a safe deposit box full of secrets. As Mark's drive to uncover his past grows, so do the tensions in the small Colorado town with the misnomer of Harmony. Newspapers covering 1968, the year Mark was born disappear; anything that remotely touches on a possible lead to Mark's identity are obscured. Bullying police officers, a strange reclusive businessman and his equally strange daughter as well as a motley crew of other bizarre folks enter the mix.

Through it all, Mark meets a local newspaper reporter named Karen who becomes his new romantic interest and a friend to his daughter. This book travels down some very long and winding roads from Seattle to California and, yes, it is very implausible in parts, it is entertaining and way better than television.

Rating:
Summary: DISCORD IN HARMONY
Review: In 1998, Mark Ritter and his 7-year-old daughter leave their comfortable Seattle home for a quest to search Mark's roots. A widower since his daughter was an infant, Mark feels especially determined to share what little he knows of his own background with her. Adopted in infancy, Mark's adoptive mother dies, leaving behind a safe deposit box full of secrets. As Mark's drive to uncover his past grows, so do the tensions in the small Colorado town with the misnomer of Harmony. Newspapers covering 1968, the year Mark was born disappear; anything that remotely touches on a possible lead to Mark's identity are obscured. Bullying police officers, a strange reclusive businessman and his equally strange daughter as well as a motley crew of other bizarre folks enter the mix.

Through it all, Mark meets a local newspaper reporter named Karen who becomes his new romantic interest and a friend to his daughter. This book travels down some very long and winding roads from Seattle to California and, yes, it is very implausible in parts, it is entertaining and way better than television.

Rating:
Summary: Protagonist and daughter annoying..
Review: Just to emphasize what has been said here in other reviews: I found Mark, the "hero" to be plagued with the inability to control his emotions, to be a little off-putting. His personality is wholly inconsistent with the fact that he endured four years of Air Force Academy hazing, the stress flying F-16s (he must have had temper tantrums on each mission he flew), and his wife being mowed down by a drunk..

..but, then again, I guess I would get a little edgy around his daughter as well. Perhaps if he didn't feed her so much junk food and ice cream. Mr. Fox's writing style is not that bad and things could have been worse. He could have been working with the editor who worked with Mr. Finder when he created that unfortunate book, "Extraordinary powers".