My Book Reviews

When Juliet Armstrong is recruited by MI5 in 1940 she expects quite a lot. It must have been disappointing that the job mainly existed in typing. Transcripting audiotapes into typed text. After some time she notices that nobody in the job is who they pretend to be and is astounded that this also goes for herself. 10 years later she finds herself haunted by things and people she had chosen to forget. The book is a very pleasant read. I love the almost cynical, nonchalant style. Like not a lot is a reason to get worried or excited. Kate Atkinson is a writer I very much admire!

I was a bit disappointed with this book. Of course I knew it was not a popular fiction book, but a scientific historic work. The writer did his best to make it as easy to digest as possible. Maybe it could have been done better, certainly not by me. I was after more knowledge about the start of papism, the first popes and who ruled (western) Europe after the Roman Empire collapsed. I learned about a lot of new people who had power in the (early) middle ages and before that. Names like Zeno, Basilium and so on. I knew about the Visigoths but nothing about Theoderic. And he might be called "The Great" because he managed to be named an emperor. His empire did collaps after he died. I did know about the Merovingians and the Carolingians, not about how the family of Charlemagne took the power over the Franks. I did know about how part of his empire grew to become "the Holy Roman Empire". It had not a lot in common with the Roman Empire. Yet this make me finally understan

A book well worth reading.  If you have read the previous Robert Galbraith novels and pick up this one: you will not be disappointed. I don't want to give anything away, don't want to spoil the fun. Yet another big story of the Strike and Ellacott Investigation Agency with cases and the personal stories you are used to by now. It's a large book. I wondered for some time if this could have been a bit less complicated and extensive. I came to the conclusion that less is not always better. It is a balanced book. Writing stuff myself I was a bit surprised to have discovered a few mistakes. Maybe I should have tried to get a job as an editor for a publishing company when I was younger. I am certain in a next edition the mistakes will have been removed. All in all I gave the book a well deserved 5 stars.

  A very amusing novel. I don't want to spoil the fun for future readers and won't talk about the characters. I loved the casual almost cynical style. It makes the book very different from standard crime novels. The last chapters are used to take care of loose ends, but it did make me wonder if the writer had a bit enough of the whole thing. It had been easy to have added quite a lot more of details. It's a bit like a TV series where you get the explanation of the episodes you watched for your eyes, lasting no more than 5 minutes. Then again, the book is long enough and it did not feel too much like rushing towards the end. Other readers might disagree with me, I would understand that. All in all I enjoyed reading it and 5 stars is exactly what it deserves in my opinion.

A very good read for me! In the Netherlands children are taught a bit about history of other countries besides their own. I never really got to grasp what happened in England (Great Brittain) between King Charles I and King Charles II. Of course I heard about Oliver Cromwell, but what happened in these years always remained a mystery to me. This book made things very understandable. Anna Keay did a great job with this scientific book. It is even a very enjoyable one. Using some of the main characters of the period to sketch the events from their perspective works really well. People, things and the period certainly came to life for me. The way the narrative was told made me think of the books of Barbara Tuchman, who used the same technique. This narrative is not straight forward, it is quite complicated. I always thought that the period of Cromwell being in charge of England, Scotland and Ireland should be considered as the nations being a republic, now I understand this was not really

I give this book 4 stars. I have a high opinion about Denise Mina and expected from the book a bit more than it delivered. Confidence is written in a high speed style, like Dan Brown would do. It has quite a lot of explanation in it and yet it keeps being full speed ahead. It almost leaves the reader breathless. Yet Denise Mina is skilled enough to keep you binded to the story. Some books you would reread, this one I won't, but it was quite amusing and worthy of the time I spent reading it.