Customer Reviews

Five Roundabouts to Heaven (Pan Classic Crime S.)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's a real shame that this book is out of print. John Bingham was a classic mystery writer from the early 50s in the UK and he belongs in the ranks of the best of breed. Five Roundabouts is his second novel.

The book has much of the dark moodiness and imperfect characters that you'd find in a book by someone like Patricia Highsmith. You won't find the stock sympathetic characters here. Roundabout's characters commit adultery, lie to each other, mock their friends, and contemplate murder. The reader looking for someone to cheer for will be rather hard put in this instance.

Definitely not typical escapist detective fiction, and all the better for it, IMO.

I picked that one in a bargain bin at a supermarket because of Le Carre's endorsement but wasn't expecting much. After about twenty pages, I was hooked and finished the book in a single session. While we are essentially told what has happened in the first chapters and while it is in many ways an archetypal mystery novel, the excellent writing that drives the clean (very little suspension of disbelief required) plot leaves enough open paths to keep the reader speculating about the multiple possible endings.

This is an atemporal intrigue, deeply grounded in human psyche. Read it!

Solid crime story. Not a mystery, but rather an exploration of the psychology that could prompt an average person to contemplate murder, and ultimately to be able to commit murder. This is also known as 'The Tender Poisoner'

A story of passion, jealousy, and madness; definitely not one of the "grind 'em out" and fluff genre. John Bingham was eventually revealed to be Lord Clanmorris of MI5.

Comment on the review by "A Customer": the Amazon synopsis was written by John LeCarre, who no doubt would have done just fine on his SATs. Perhaps it's "A Customer" who needs to brush up, as he thinks "Amazon 'looses' its way.'"

The Amazon synopsis was written by someone who hasn't read the book, or fared poorly on the SAT reading comprehension test.