ian Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 This follows the story of a woman (Imacolata Boreli) who is the daughter of a powerful Mafia clan in Naples. Following the death of her friend, she makes the decision to collaborate with the police and give evidence against them. Her English boyfriend,Eddie, not understanding who she really is, travels to Naples to look for her, and so walks into the middle of a vendetta. Struggled a bit with this, but I think that was down to me & my mojo rather than the quality of the book. It did annoy me a little that there was no conversation in the first half of the book; it was all told second hand. Any way, it seemed to take off after the halfway point (the book or my mojo, I'm still not sure!) and I really enjoyed it from that point onwards. Gerald Seymour writes the charactor of Imacolata so that we don't have a lot of sympathy for her, which, for me, made her more beleivable. You're not allowed to forget that she was an active part of a Mafia clan, and so not entirely innocent. I didn't really warm to Eddie, and again that might have been the writers intention, but it did mean that the first half of the book had no sympathetic charactors. This might be why I struggled. The second half introduces a hostage negotiator, who I did warm to. So for me, second half flew by. 4 out of 5 Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noodle Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 I'm probably not very objective when it comes to this author, for me he can do no wrong. But, I don't think The Collaborator is one of his most readable. Colin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian Posted March 5, 2011 Author Share Posted March 5, 2011 Really? It's only the second of his (I think! - if "Rat run" is one of his, and in both cases I found them difficult to get going, but once in, I couldn't put it down. What else would you recommend? Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noodle Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 As I have said I have liked a lot of them, but as I posted in another thread ARCHANGEL is probably my favourite. Now I did find this one difficult to get into, in fact I gave up on it once, but a work colleague suggested it was worth a second try. I'm very glad I took his advice, very heart-warming and emotional experience. Written some time ago, 1982 in fact, but available on Amazon. Colin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runner Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 This book did not do if for me...one of the few books I started and give up very quickly. I have read a lot of Gerald Seymour and found them very heavy on detail/proceedure...in fact just plain boring...apart from the wonderful Harry's Game..ah but that was a long time ago..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.