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Spider In The Cup (2014)

by Barbara Cleverly(Favorite Author)

3.29 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1306915899 (ISBN13: 9781306915892)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Soho Crime

series

Joe Sandilands

review 1: Sometimes I think that Cleverly doesn't know whether to be a mystery writer or an historian.This particular book was not my favorite. Often her writing is hazy and unclear -- she leaves you to fill in blanks which can be pretty easy when you are reading a fairly lightweight mystery. But, this was full of espionage and plotting leading up to WWII and full of all the subtle plots to overthrow governments. That kind of writing needs to be much more precise and that is not her forte. Cleverly seems to believe that readers can "catch" her hints about matters that would best be explicit.Her early books on India centered around a mystery work well. But, when she concentrates on the history of an event and, by the way, plugs in a mystery -- it just fails to be tightly written. As ... moreI was reading, I was aware of being bored by all the espionage which became tedious at best. And, the end left us wondering what she was going to do next with her protagonist -- but nothing was ever really, really clear. Cleverly is no doubt a wonderful researcher to bring such rich background to her books. But, she lacks the ability to make that complex events clear to her readers. is it in the editing? I'm not sure.
review 2: This was another case of picking up a book in the middle of a series and not realizing it until halfway through the book...That being said, this was a different look at the political and economic scene leading up to WWII. A multi-nation convention to discuss the Depression is taking place in London, and representatives of everyone from Hitler to Roosevelt will be there. Joe Sandilands, Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard, is assigned to guard a particularly difficult target who is known as Roosevelt's "right hand man." Complicating matters are a (possibly) missing ballerina mistress, the body of a young girl found in the Thames by a dowsing society, and the bigwig's body guard, a former detective who worked under Sandilands at one time and was forced to flee under inauspicious conditions. Sandilands must work with this former colleague to protect the man who, he begins to believe, is key to the direction America takes in the war.A very complicated book, with a lot of politicking. I think the thing I enjoyed most about it was the fascinating look at how Great Britain viewed the U.S. before WWII. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series. less

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