The Poison Tree [Import] [Hardcover]

Tony Strong (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 356 pages
• Publisher: NY: Delacorte Press, 1997; 1St Edition edition (1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385408722
• ISBN-13: 978-0385408721
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing and disgusting., April 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Poison Tree (Hardcover)

I read Strong's second novel The Death Pit before I started The Poison Tree and I really liked it. And I'll admit that at first I liked this one as well.

I read it with interest right up until the big climactic scene when the whole plot fell apart. The solution made very little sense to me- it almost seemed as though the author had just tacked it on at the last minute to have an ending- any ending! That leads to a thoroughly disgusting and nauseating spate of animal cruelty that I find unforgivable. The author seems to be hoping that these atrocities will make the reader forget that the so-called solution to his mystery was ludicrous and wholly unbelievable. It didn't work- I was so furious by the end that I vowed never to read anything else by Mr. Strong. That's unfortunate because as I stated before, I did like The Death Pit. Makes me wish that I'd never looked for The Poison Tree.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly and disappointly awful, June 27, 2000

By 

Suzanne (Peachtree City, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Poison Tree (Mass Market Paperback)

The plot line of this book had such potential, which is what kept me reading past the first few chapters. I very much identified, however, with the main character's students, who were falling asleep during her lectures.

The grotesque and the sexually explicit does not bother me very much when I am reading a good book. This was not a good book. It was oh-so-obvious that this was written by a man, and one who really doesn't know women at that.

The most unnecessary part of the whole book was the epilogue. It added nothing to the storyline and leaves the reader with only negative feelings towards the book as a whole.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Little to like, January 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Poison Tree (Mass Market Paperback)

This is less mystery than thriller, and it's not very thrilling. I found the characters neither interesting nor likeable, and prefer criminals to have some motivation other than psychosis. One book jacket blurb says something like "the classic English mystery meets the American thriller;" if so, the classic English mystery is badly beaten and raped in the encounter. Even the sexual relations seem to lack plausibility. I think that Tony Strong relies a little too much on brutality against a cat and various people, and too much on the coarse titilation of fantasy sex letters, instead of creating convincing motivation.