My Book Reviews

Burnet is very good and clever writer. Like all of his books I think this novel should at least get 5 stars. I think the best about it, is how you get into Inspector George Gorski's way of thinking. Always very aware of his own behaviour and how this should affect other people's thoughts about him. And this 3rd Gorski book gives us again an insight in the lives of the good people of the fictional town of St.Louis, near Mulhouse in Alsace. It is a special part of France, caused by the many times it has been changed hands. The region has been German a few times, but nowadays it is French. I don't want to spoil the fun for other readers, so I will not give away anything of the plot. But...it deserves a lot of readers!

The contents of this book play out in the time after Snowblind. Again it is a pity that there are several little mistakes in the text. You would expect any editor to have seen these. It takes away my wish to give the book 5 stars. There is a red thread in the books: the relationship between main character Ari Thor and his fiance Kristin. It causes Ari Thor to do certain things in a certain way. I will not give away any of the things that happen in the book. Like all human behaviour has it's origin in specific causes according to the books. Action and reaction. That is why the writer lets us read about the thinking of all the characters that make their appearance. There is logic in this and he does it consistently. All in all this was - again - an easy and pleasant read. I certainly will read more books in this series.

A nice entertaining crime novel placed in northern Iceland. The sleuth Ari Thor has everything to be a happy man in Reykjavik, yet he decided to become a police man in a very isolated town. He loses contact with his fiance, becomes lonely and obsessed with the isolation because of snow, snow and snow. The town in which nothing ever happens gets quite some things happening and delivers plenty of work to Ari Thor and his colleagues. It amazed me that in this translation that is not the first print were some mistakes. The editor must have missed them repeatedly. The word "in" three times in a row is a bit much, forgetting the little word "as" makes sentences a bit weird. And forgetting to mark a new paragraph makes it a bit hard to grasp. Forced me to read a bit twice. Bat all in all this was a pleasant yarn, a nice story. I intend to read the whole series. 4 stars are very much deserved.

An excellent book to read if you want to understand how modern China has become what it is now and how it is functioning. Of course I knew a bit about China, like we all do, but the history for me was no more than snippets. This book gives you the full picture, the complete history. The starting point of 1850 of this book is well chosen. From being the poor, very populated country that was kicked around by the more powerful countries of these days things have changed beyond recognition. The path from The Dowager Empress to Sun Yat Sen, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and finally Xi Jinping has been painful for the country and caused a lot of victims. Especially Mao Zedong who officially should be named the biggest crook in history all over the world. A life in China was never very valuable, but Mao took this principle to the limit. Like all dictators things were double: there is the wish to let the heritage of the rule continue and pick a strong person who can take over, but...