Tag Archives: e-book

Sprinting Through No Man’s Land by Adin Dobkin (2021) – BR00217 (2022) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
October 31 2022

Plot or Premise

The book provides an overview of the first Tour de France after WWI.

What I Liked

I was skeptical when I first chose the book. It showed up as a recommendation in a feed, but was I really going to read about the Tour de France? I am NOT a giant sports fan in general, and certainly not of cycling, nor even of the TdF, although I’ve always been impressed by the idea of it. A gruelling multi-day race, different terrain, and extensive coverage are truly, ahem, impressive. But would I like a book about the first one after WWI? In a word, yes.

For the actual racing part, I loved the story. Bits and pieces were pulled from reports of the day, old interviews with various people involved, etc. A historian’s dream to take something that might have been somewhat dry at times for secondary sources and turn it into a fun read. I could feel the struggle when a tire went flat, or the weather intervened, or they were racing on crappy surfaces. I admired the commitment to even compete given the timeframe, as much about recreating the old life from before the war as about creating a new normal. I enjoyed the contrast of what some of the regions had experienced even a few months previously.

What I Didn’t Like

I was surprised there wasn’t a bit more information about the previous TdF. As I said, I’m not a cycling fanatic, don’t know the whole history, and there was very little concrete detail on what happened before the war. It seems like a strange omission to talk about “what’s new after the war” without saying what was “old before the war”. Heck, even which version of the race it was by year!

However, as much as I enjoyed seeing what happened in various regions during the war, the overviews of the regions were often way too long and disconnected from the story. They were decent summaries but they read like a history textbook. Not exactly riveting and the main reason I’m docking it a star.

The Bottom Line

Good enough for even a non-cycling fan to enjoy

The Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton (1992) – BR00215 (2022) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
October 29 2022

Plot or Premise

Agatha Raisin retires from an active public relations life in London and settles down in a small town, expecting a relatively quiet existence.

What I Liked

The general premise is interesting, with a pie she enters in a contest ending up somehow killing someone. There are lots of characters running around, and once things settle down, it has the basis for a good universe to visit.

What I Didn’t Like

I struggled with three aspects of the story. First and foremost, Agatha herself is not particularly likable. She’s spent her career generally being oblivious to others, but now that she has moved to a small town, her intent is to get to know the locals and ingratiate herself. Except as she does, she basically does so rather offensively by trying to fake her way into winning a baking contest and condescendingly considering local efforts to organize anything as obviously underwhelming. Second, the whole murder is rather obvious to the reader, but even within the investigation, some elements are assumed away while ridiculous other parts are painstakingly investigated with no real avenue to pursue. And some of the information that people learn, with a weird out of place point-of-view shift at convenient moments, is held back. Finally, some of the characters are simple clichés, rather than fully formed. Supposedly that makes them “funny”, I just found them annoying.

I do have another complaint, but it doesn’t affect the rating. If it did, zero would be in the cards. The story is quite old at this point, and I was reading the first one from 1992. In the copy I bought, they included a short story as an extra, in honour of the 25-year anniversary of the book’s debut. Except there is no warning whatsoever about the story and what you’re about to read, and how it fits into the timeline other than it is present day. And yet, with no sense of spoiler, there are references to two characters and all that has gone on with them over the last 25 years. It’s not quite as bad as, say, reading the short story and it saying, “Oh, remember the case you had where the butler did it?”, it doesn’t give away murder mystery reveals, but rather it reveals the nature and extent of the relationship Agatha has had with two main characters in the series. I won’t even talk about it here, as they would be major reveals, and I confess I was quite dismayed to learn it from the shortstory. I am intending to read the whole series, but I’d rather not have known in advance.

The Bottom Line

Good start for a series, okay book on its own

The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker (1973) – BR00199 (2021) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
July 13 2021

Plot or Premise

Spenser is hired to find a rare book stolen from a university and the first witness he talks to ends up standing over a dead body within a day, but claims she didn’t do it.

What I Liked

This is the first book in the long-running Spenser series, and it is one of my favorite series of all time. Quirk and Belson are introduced, as well as some general hoodlums, and it is classic Spenser. Keep plugging along, doing what he wants to do or thinks is right, even after the book-napping is resolved.

What I Didn’t Like

Without Silverman or Hawk, it almost feels like Spenser’s on vacation on his own, not quite a full Spenser story. As such, it runs a bit more linearly than some of his other books.

The Bottom Line

Welcome to Boston’s finest

A String of Beads by Thomas Perry (2015) – BR00198 (2021) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
July 11 2021

Plot or Premise

Jane is asked by the elders of her tribe to find an innocent man charged with murder and to help him until things are cleared up.

What I Liked

The introduction of the elders was a great development, and showed that Jane’s work has not gone unnoticed by the clans. They not only are aware of it, they approve and ask her to put her skills to use with another member, a childhood friend of Jane’s.

What I Didn’t Like

The secondary characters didn’t work that well for me…a woman whose story reads like a bad rape fantasy, a cop who happens to be an expert tracker and who happens to follow her despite having no idea who she is or any evidence he sees her, and some crooks who are okay, but not compelling.

The Bottom Line

Average story raised up by the initial clients.

Poison Flower by Thomas Perry (2012) – BR00197 (2021) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
June 27 2021

Plot or Premise

Jane breaks an innocent man out of jail but the real criminals grab her and torture her to talk. She doesn’t, of course, which sets off a long series of other events.

What I Liked

The crooks figure out that Jane is a pro, and that others must know who she is, so a lot of other hunters from previous books show up again. She ends up managing almost three fugitives at the same time — the original, a stray she picks up along the way, and herself.

What I Didn’t Like

The storyline is a bit hard to follow, as well as the original crime itself, the reason for everything getting started, and the logic behind how the medical supply stuff was all supposed to work. Equally, some parts seem almost like a dumb Sylvester Stallone or Bruce Willis movie where the good guy gets tortured, and a short while later, is ready to rock and roll again.

The Bottom Line

Over the top for violence.