Customer Reviews

Sandman

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

 

 

Dr. K. Feig: We are finally getting the Janes' series in the US. His French detective/"warm fuzzy" Gestapo agent team is a tour de force. Someone's review of his other book in English in this series elicited the following bit: "writing talents--in plot, character, dialogue and sheer command of language--are sadly lacking." Well - Okay, if you want to apply an American cultural analysis. But the setting is murky Vichy France during WWII under the nasty German occupation. Not only is the plot intriguing, the characters well drawn, the writing intelligent, the suspense sustained. But the real benefit is the impeccable historical accuracy, the description of the social and cultural forces, and the terrible realities of occupation. It is a great read - and one learns and understands - and shrinks in alarm not only from the story but the reality of the time and environment in which it occurs. Let's get the rest of the books translated!!!

This book is superbly conceived, well plotted, and (unfortunately) not very well written. The constant use of the interjection "Ah" and punctuation with never-varying oaths put the reader off. Also, the writer should forswear forever the use of German; his attempts at it are truly atrocious. But with all that, I found the book a good read; the plot carries the reader along and the solution is satisfying. Recommended, with reservations. Dave Appling

The good news is, the author has clearly done a lot of study of Occupied Paris, and has crafted an interesting plot, with all the period flavor one could possibly ask for. Although sometimes it rang a bit false (the French citizenry is rather nonchalant about telling Germans that the war is going against them, for example, or talking about the Resistance), overall I found it an interesting and believable milieu.

The problem is the writing. There were two things that I found particularly annoying. The first is the authors habit of having characters say things they never would naturally say, just so that you the reader are informed for the sake of exposition. The best example of this, that actually made me laugh out loud (not the author's desired effect from this passage :)), comes when a detective, questioning somebody, apropos of nothing the person has said, says to them: "thinking my partner was a collaborator, [the resistance] set a bomb for him. his wife and sone came home form the arms of her German lover to an unexpected surprise...He's still on the Resistance's hit lists. Well, some of them, but he's no collabo. Now forget I said any of that..." 'NOW FORGET I SAID ANY OF THAT'?!!??

Second, the author too often tries to add a world-weary, wise air to things by adding "Ahh, yes" or "Ahh, no". See, here's how this works. You take a mundane sentence, like "I like pie". Is that what you put in your novel? Ahh, no. Instead, you put "I like pie. Ahh, yes". See, now it's great writing! I'm being a bit snarky, I admit, and the first few times this happened, it worked, but after a while it just drove me crazy.

Shall I end on such a negative note? Ahh, no. Instead, I would recommend Phillip Kerr's "Berlin Noir" trilogy to this, also an atmosphere-soaked set of police procedurals set before/during WWII in Germany, but IMHO much better written --- ahh, yes.