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The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still (2011)

by Malcolm Pryce(Favorite Author)
3.97 of 5 Votes: 2
ISBN
1408810255 (ISBN13: 9781408810255)
languge
English
genre
publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
series
Aberystwyth Noir
review 1: The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still is the sixth book in the Louie Knight series. Pryce has really hit his stride with the series now. The principal characters - Knight, Calamity, Sospan, Eyeore - are all well established and the slightly surrealist rendering of Aberystwyth and its surrounds is fully realised. I thought the first half of this book was excellent and I was sure it was going to be a five star review. The story grabs one's attention, there is a hefty dose of humour which made me laugh out loud, and the prose is vivid and engaging. Throughout the book, Pryce weaves in a fair bit of philosophical rhetoric which elevated the story beyond a parody of both PI novels and Welsh culture. The second half of the story wanders off course a little. The plot, I felt, becomes o... morever-complicated with its various threads and subplots, and I found myself often turning back a few pages to re-read passages to try and get a clearer sense of what was going on. I'm still not sure I really understood all of it. This was a shame as the book is inventive, clever and genuinely funny in places.
review 2: The further adventures of Louie Knight, Abertswtwyth's only private detective, and his sidekick Calamity continues with a search for Iestyn Probert. A man who was hanged for his part in the Great Coliseum robbery, caught because he was a soft- hearted getaway car driver who stopped his escape in order to take an injured pedestrian to the doctor. Or was he in fact hanged? Add to this, aliens, men in black, human cannonballs, giant gingerbread aliens and the boxing contest to find the next Mayor of Aberystwyth and you have the latest and funniest offering from Malcom Pryce ; an author who can sculpt with words as Michaelangelo could with marble. This is the sixth book in the series and the funniest yet, so many laugh-out-loud lines to be treasured. For example; "Our organisation is a secret sub-section of the Welsh Office known as the Aviary" "Which branch?" LOL Equally amusing for me is trying to imagine how non Welsh readers get on with the pronunciation !But even if you aren't Welsh you will still get an enormous amount of fun out of this book and although reading the first five books is recommended , each book can stand very well alone and you will soon catch on to what is happening in this surreal slice of small town Welsh life. And don't forget to try the ice cream ! less
Reviews (see all)
dathom
Disappointing. Bleaker and less whimsical than the previous books in the series.
Spooly
Enjoyable, tangled, ridiculous, entertaining. As expected from Mr Pryce.
vidhu
amusing, but not the best in the series.
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