Birth Marks [Paperback]

Sarah Dunant (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: SIMON & SCHUSTER @ TRADE (1995)
• ASIN: B000SFNQDK
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

More About the Author

The author of the critically acclaimed Hannah Wolfe mystery series, Sarah Dunant is also well known in the United Kingdom for her work as a television host. She lives in London.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this is a very well-written mystery, August 18, 2006

By 

Sammy Madison (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Birth Marks: A Hannah Wolfe Crime Novel (Paperback)

I'm surprised that there are not a lot of glowing reviews on Amazon of "Birth Marks" by Sarah Dunant. It was first printed in 1992, and my edition was printed in 2005, so there has been plenty of time for readers to discover the Hannah Wolfe series by this excellent author. There are at least three Hannah Wolfe mysteries: "Birth Marks", "Fat Lands", and "Under My Skin". These are not re-runs of 1950s gumshoe detective stories, or old British ladies solving village mysteries. Hannah is like Bridget Jones, if Bridget doubled her IQ and went to work for a London detective agency. She's smart, young, single, urban, and hip. In "Birth Marks", Hannah is hired by an aging balarina to locate her missing protege. When she turns up in the Thames, dead and pregnant, Hannah feels compelled to track down her killer. This is a very exciting, literate mystery. If you read this one, you'll have to read all three books. They are really good.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars highly evolved, June 24, 2008

By 

Julia M. Walker (NY Finger Lakes) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Birth Marks: A Hannah Wolfe Crime Novel (Paperback)

The dancer Hannah Wolfe was hired to find turns up dead, but that doesn't keep her from becoming a complex character. Dunant's characters are like Hirschfeld portraits - economical, vivid, and inscribed with her own maker's mark. The aging ballet mistress, the invisible cop-mentor, the eyelashes, the French beauties, they all leap off the page with very little ink needed. It's a book about people, Hannah most of all, but also her sister and her view of the world. You'll think you know the twist at the end, but you will be wrong.

Sarah Dunant is a wonderful writer. Her prose is crisp and clever and so is her detective. Hannah Wolfe colors outside the lines, but carefully. Unlike VI Warshawski and Alex Tanner, Hannah doesn't go blindly/willfully into dangerous situations; she makes phone calls telling people her location - then she steps into the shadows. I wonder if the detective's feminine name is further evidence that Dunant doesn't feel she has anything to prove in these books. Hannah is a truly evolved independent professional.

The first-person narration is so witty that you'll laugh in inappropriate places. Dunant's character is monarch of the throw-away line. After her ego suffers a black-eye, Hannah comforts herself with a series of platitudes, then remarks "A poultice of cliché's brought down the swelling." She's a self-critical narrator, but ironic and sardonic rather than depressed or bitter. Hannah is such a 21st-century hero that it's a triple shame Dunant seems to have let the series lapse.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read, August 26, 2008

By 

magali picasso (HB, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Birth Marks (Kindle Edition)

Great female detective story. All plausable situations. Keeps you guessing all the way through. Page turner!!!