supergran71
16th December 2007, 16:24
This is my first review, please treat me gently :blush:
The Devil’s Feather by Minette Walters
Synopsis
“Have you ever wanted to bury a secret so deeply that n one will find out about it?”
“With private security firms supplying bodyguards in every theatre ofwar, who will notice the emergence of a sexual psychopath from the ranks of the mercenaries?
Reuters correspondent Connie Burns is no stranger to the world’s troublespots, including the vicious civil unrest in Sierra Leone and the war in Iraq. But as she begins to suspect that a foreigner is using the chaos of war to act out sadistic fantasies against women, her efforts to bring him to justic leave her devastated.
Degraded and terrified she goes into hiding in England and strikes up a friendship with Jess Derbyshire, a lone whose reclusive nature may well be masking secrets of her own, Connie draws from the other woman’s strength andmakes the hazardous decision to attempt a third unmasking of a serial killer.”
I have read many of this author’s book and have always enjoyed them. I enjoyed this one too, but found it a little different in the format she uses. She intersperses the story with emails to her boss and senior policemen using them to update the situation for the reader, indeed the book actually starts with 2 emails setting the scene. She also adds what I can only assume are case notes for the main character’s use. Once I got used to this style I started to enjoy the read, although the early chapters were a little slow. The pace increases once the “action” moves to England in no uncertain fashion and before long I was getting very tense and resisting the temptation to peak at the pages to come. Minette Walters certainly grabs the reader’s attention and you are carried along with her very pacy writing skills and imaginative scene setting. The characters were drawn with skill and totally believable. However the main focus of the action suddenly ends and I was left wondering if “that was it” or was there more. There was still 134 pages to go and as I worked through them I was wondering “where is this going? Where it was going was to solve the psychological problems of the main character and her the people she had befriended and whether or not they had disposed of her tormentor in the previous pages. Slightly confused? Well so was I and I found the ending pretty disappointing and unsatisfactory. It gave me the feeling that the author didn’t know how to end the story so just wound it up as best she could.
The Devil’s Feather by Minette Walters
Synopsis
“Have you ever wanted to bury a secret so deeply that n one will find out about it?”
“With private security firms supplying bodyguards in every theatre ofwar, who will notice the emergence of a sexual psychopath from the ranks of the mercenaries?
Reuters correspondent Connie Burns is no stranger to the world’s troublespots, including the vicious civil unrest in Sierra Leone and the war in Iraq. But as she begins to suspect that a foreigner is using the chaos of war to act out sadistic fantasies against women, her efforts to bring him to justic leave her devastated.
Degraded and terrified she goes into hiding in England and strikes up a friendship with Jess Derbyshire, a lone whose reclusive nature may well be masking secrets of her own, Connie draws from the other woman’s strength andmakes the hazardous decision to attempt a third unmasking of a serial killer.”
I have read many of this author’s book and have always enjoyed them. I enjoyed this one too, but found it a little different in the format she uses. She intersperses the story with emails to her boss and senior policemen using them to update the situation for the reader, indeed the book actually starts with 2 emails setting the scene. She also adds what I can only assume are case notes for the main character’s use. Once I got used to this style I started to enjoy the read, although the early chapters were a little slow. The pace increases once the “action” moves to England in no uncertain fashion and before long I was getting very tense and resisting the temptation to peak at the pages to come. Minette Walters certainly grabs the reader’s attention and you are carried along with her very pacy writing skills and imaginative scene setting. The characters were drawn with skill and totally believable. However the main focus of the action suddenly ends and I was left wondering if “that was it” or was there more. There was still 134 pages to go and as I worked through them I was wondering “where is this going? Where it was going was to solve the psychological problems of the main character and her the people she had befriended and whether or not they had disposed of her tormentor in the previous pages. Slightly confused? Well so was I and I found the ending pretty disappointing and unsatisfactory. It gave me the feeling that the author didn’t know how to end the story so just wound it up as best she could.