Five Roundabouts to Heaven [Import] [Paperback]

JOHN BINGHAM (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 219 pages
• Publisher: PENGUINS (1959)
• ASIN: B0000EE16Q
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,823,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moody and Sensual Mystery, January 7, 2000

By 

frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Five Roundabouts to Heaven (Classic Crime) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a little gem!, July 13, 2009

By 

P. Vandevenne -. Datarescue (Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Five Roundabouts to Heaven: A Novel (Paperback)

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!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What motivates murder?, November 2, 2010

By 

Michael Dea (Calgary, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Five Roundabouts to Heaven: A Novel (Paperback)

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'