Customer Reviews

Simon Said

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Very fun book, I read it in one day, couldn't put it down. Wonderful characters, I loved Simon, very real and human character. The supporting cast is also a lot of fun. Different characters in different jobs. Ms. Sharber really makes you root for Simon's love interest, Julia. I hope that we see a lot more of her in the next books. Ms. Sharber does a good job of hiding the villians and had me guessing up to the end. She has a great way of running two mysteries at once. One past and one present, then pulling them together very well. Can't wait to read her next book, Snipe Hunt. I only hope that Ms. Sharber starts at least writing one a year. One every three years will just not do!

This book was well worth the 3 week wait for my reserved copy at the local library. How soon can we expect more of Simon's exploits? Mystery, humor, and a little romance + intelligence without ego.

As a long since escaped native of Raleigh (the scene of the crime), I was fully taken with Ms. Shaber's description of the older Raleigh area. I could feel the oppressive humidity in the air and walked the streets of Cameron Park with her. Although I guessed the identity of the "hard cases", I found this to be an entertaining and well-written first mystery. Can't wait for her next book.

I enjoyed the entire story line. The old murder mixed in with the current lives of the present day folks. I loved Simon, his interpretation of the south. And I also want to hear more about his developing relationship with Julia.

I was thrilled to learn that Shaber had released this series on Kindle. As soon as I heard the news, I bought this book and read it in one day.

I am a NC native and found this book very true to place and the characters charming and Southern without being stereotypical. I loved the history in the book and I loved Simon and his cronies. The mystery is light and fun and far better than I expected.

If you're looking for a fun cozy mystery, rich in history that doesn't read like a textbook, you will love this book. Hard-boiled fans and thriller readers probably won't like Simon Said, but cozy lovers who enjoy cozy mysteries with an academic and historical slant will love it. This is the perfect book for the beach or a lazy Sunday afternoon. I highly recommend it!

I pick up this book at my local library, just before the the auther was going to come speak. I finished in about 2 days and found it a very fun read. Since I live in Raleigh, I have walk on the same sidewalks through the neighborhoods and colleges mentioned in the story. I found myself in the story most the the way through. By that I mean that the stressors or distractions of my world melted away as I was absorbed into Simon's world. I like that in a book.

This is one of those cases where I wish one could give half star ratings on Amazon, because it's more a 2.5 than a 3 star book for me. Still, I suppose "it's OK" is closer to what I felt about it than "I didn't like it", so three stars it is.

I should say that I'm almost tempted to take away a star for the awful Kindle formatting: the formatting issues constantly pulled me out of the story, especially due to the way paragraphs and scenes kept running together without any breaks. There were also many numbers obviously missing from the text, especially in several instances when it was clear the sentence was supposed to end with a date (year) but instead ended with a space followed by a full stop. Next to these issues, the frequent lack of new paragraph indents and an active table of contents (or even the way new chapters always started in the middle of a page of text) were minor problems.

But even without the formatting issues, it wouldn't have made my favourite mysteries list. For the first 20-25% of the book, I wasn't sure whether I would manage to finish it at all - the pacing was all wrong, disjointed and rushed and full of completely irrelevant descriptions and mini-infodumps whenever a new character was introduced. I found the writing did improve a little towards the ending (either that or I got more used to it), but not a lot.

That said, the plot itself intrigued me enough that I kept reading, simply because I wanted to know "who did it" (for both the historical murder and the contemporary goings-on). I didn't warm to Simon, but he did have his good points (such as his affection for his cat), and some of the supporting cast, while somewhat one- or two-dimensional, showed promise. Not enough for me to read more in this series, but enough for me to give it a "it was OK" rating and not regret the time spent on it.

Professor Simon Shaw has anything but a dull life. No sooner is he asked to advise on the finding of some remains at a historical site than someone is trying to kill him. Are the two related? You'll enjoy finding out. I agree with other reviewers that there are some plot weaknesses; in particular, a tenured professor would not face being fired because he was taking antidepressants, and someone denied tenure might stay to finish up a year but would not hang around hoping to be given another chance at it. But the rest of the academic politics described ring true! I also enjoyed the subtext of Simon and Julia overcoming their preconceptions of each other and will hope to see their relationship move forward. Am looking forward to reading the next one.

This is one of those great books that is fun to curl up on the couch and read. Full of great descriptions and well developed charachters -- not to much a great, twisting plot -- it is no wonder it won Best First Mystery! I recommend to anyone and to the reader who reviewed it before, I would like to see you try and write something of this caliber!

Noted Pulitzer Prize winning historian Dr. Simon Shaw is fighting with an immense bout of depression. The Kenan College, North Carolina professor has watched his spouse leave him to start a career in New York. Simon struggles to come to grips with his feelings of inadequacy and desertion. However, Simon receives a wake up jolt when he is called in to look into a corpse found during an archeological dig at Bloodsworth House on the campus. ...... Simon believes that the corpse is that of a woman, Anne Bloodsworth, who disappeared over seventy years ago. He continues to investigate the disappearance and subsequent murder of Anne. As he does, Simon comes to the attention of someone who prefers that the Bloodsworth case stay buried. That assailant will do anything, including murdering Simon in a manner that the police will declare the professor a suicide victim. The historian best solve this case soon or he may be the next corpse uncovered seven decades hence. ....... SIMON SAID is an interesting and well written story line with a great amateur detective, and a fine supporting cast, who provide tasteful and often times eccentric look into North Carolina. Though the who-done-it has few red herrings and even fewer suspects, Sarah R. Shaber, winner of a St. Martin's award, demonstrates much talent and has a promising future in the genre. ......Harriet Klausner