Customer Reviews

Praetorian

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

 

 

I enjoyed this novel because it took me to a time and era that I enjoy reading about. There is a good mix of mystery, intrigue, love, and adultry not to mention a war or two. This novel did exactly what I expected it to do. It transported me to a diferent time and place and that is why I like to curl up with a good book.

Gifford's books always sound so good based on their descriptions on the back cover, but I think his books have either been spectacularly average or a snore fest. Except for this one. This one is a guilty pleasure. Yeah, some of the characters are stereotypes (and some are so superfluous that they break up the narrative). Yeah, Cilla's mental state bouces back and forth and makes us wonder why every man falls for her. And yeah, it's a little long. And yet Gifford managed to make me care about the main characters by following their journey through the years. Gifford does a nice job of placing us in the time. You get a feeling for London in the 40's and Paris in the 20's. The mystery doesn't require a complete suspension of disbelief (like some of his other books do). Characters act because of real motivations, not because the story requires them to do so.
So yeah, if you're looking for a fun mystery/soap opera love story/war story with a historical flavor you can do a lot worse than this.

Why write a 716 pages "thriller", which does not start "thrilling" until page 148 and even then is just one cliche after the other. The author being American the story is mainly about English people and the chararcters are all paper thin (Englishmen go to Eton and say "old chap", they dine in the Ritz, bla, bla). Who are reading these books? Housewives in Idaho who never had a chance to cross the state border? I gave up halfthrough and I will never know who the traitor was! Oh, gosh. Yawn, yawn. How about no stars at all..............