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Ashes To Dust (2007)

by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir(Favorite Author)

3.63 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0312641745 (ISBN13: 9780312641740)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Minotaur Books

series

Þóra Guðmundsdóttir

review 1: I kinda liked this book. I definitely enjoyed the setting and I find that keeping up with unusual names keeps me more involved somehow, like I have to pay attention. In particular I liked the way the lawyer's home life was a part of the story. The characters were all interesting, especially the minor ones...I wanted more of their story. The story itself was only so so. The story itself was a little blah. The set up was a little ridiculous I think. The mystery was pretty easy to figure out and the twist at the end did not quite work for me. Overall though, not a bad whodunit, I would try another from this author.
review 2: When I found myself trying to read a certain number of pages every day to finish this book I realized I didn't like it enough to finish it.... more There was nothing too terrible about it. One of my several complaints about the Nordic books I've read is that the main character confronts someone who has information the character needs. The confrontation is aggressive and I don't mind it so much even though it doesn't always seem to me to be the best course. Then when the main character fails to get what they want they almost apologize to the person they were questioning, coming up with reasons why the person was not able to help as if the person needs to be consoled or as if to offset bad feelings. It feels very stilted and strange. Maybe it's a translation problem or maybe it is a cultural difference. I don't know. The other things I don't like about Nordic detective fiction is that it feels bleak, no one is happy, the main character is usually divorced, lonely and an alcoholic. In this novel the only thing missing was the alcoholism but it was replaced with put downs about characters' weight and/or attractiveness. The only Nordic books I've enjoyed are the Stieg Larsson books and I think I've tried enough other authors to accept that this is a genre that I'm just not going to enjoy with just the one exception. less

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