Customer Reviews

Dr. Thorndyke Mysteries Collection, Volume One (Four Books in One Volume!)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great collection! I loved these books. Reminded me very strongly of "CSI" or "Quincy, M.D." written in a different era. Also throw in a little "Rumpole of the Baily" style in the mix and this is what you get.

Linked table of contents and formatting looked and worked great on my Kindle and my iPod Touch.

Very, very well written and thought out mysteries. I was really surprised at how well the writing stands up and the quality of writing is outstanding.

I personally had never heard of these stories or the author. Wow, too bad I overlooked these early in life. These are characters that will stay in your mind. After reading, I asked (ok, ok, begged) my co-workers to read them. They had never heard of the stories either and they agreed that this would make a great television series.

Turns out that in a lot of "well-read" circles, this author is well known. Hey, I'm a victim of public education, so don't blame me for my poor grasp of english literature.

Follow Dr Thorndyke as he keeps an open mind and solves mysteries using the most current forensic and investigative techniques of the day. He refuses to base is findings on anything but pure evidence.

He's professional, witty and very engaging. He refuses to take a case that he doesn't believe in.

Trust me, this is a great series. Don't believe me? Then just click on the "free sample" download to your kindle and read a little bit. You won't be disappointed.

Volume Two is just as engaging and is a great value at under a dollar as well...

Like the previous reviewer, I had never heard of this series of mysteries written in England in the first part of the 20th century. Spending a few hours with Dr. Thorndyke as he puts logic and a certain MacGiver quality towards finding the truth hidden in crime evidence has been a joy.

I have paid much, much more for today's modern mysteries only to have them disappoint with their lack of depth. What a treat to have found these volumes. And I'm only half way through Volume 1, so I feel like I have many happy hours ahead!

These are not only well written, what is most amusing is that they are the CSI of the early 1900s. All the new found scientific criminology is there as well as the racial stereotypes and fads of the day. It makes one wonder how naive we will look when we look back on CSI in 2109! But, that aside, they are well written and the love interests offer a peak in into Victorian life: almost as much change there as in criminology. I like to dip and read these between other books, as they are a little much just to sit down and wade through all at once.

This delightful sleuth is so period and so cool. thorndyke is both a medical doctor and a lawyer. And a forensic scientist. Put this combination in the early 1900s and you have lots of interesting reading.

Just wanted to put my 2 cents worth in on this wonderful gem that I was privleged enough to find here on Amazon. I was trying to find more mysteries similar to Sherlock Holmes and the Agatha Christie stuff, and stumbled across the Dr. Thorndyke mysteries. I'd never heard of them before, but I'm so glad that I have now. I'm abougt 86% of the way through this book, and I've just got to say that I would highly recommend it to people who like mysteries from early in the 20th century. Dr. Thorndyke is a character who portrays a very wonderful person, the kind of person I think we'd all like to have on our side. He's a medico-legal expert, and solves crimes from that angle. He's quite ingenious, and scientific when finding/using clues and solving crimes. Many times his services are procured by the defense for a defendant who pleads innocence, and through scientific methods, Thorndyke is able to prove him innocent of the crime. I especially enjoyed the shorter stories, but the novels are really good too. I'd recommend reading all the Dr. Thorndyke mysteries that you can get your hands on. I believe this version is well formatted and has a linked table of contents, and very few typos. For 99 cents, you just can't beat it! Again, the Thorndyke books have brought me several hours of reading enjoyment! Dr. Thorndyke Mysteries Collection, Volume One (Four Books in One Volume!)

Never heard of this author or Dr. Thorndyke until these books showed up in my Kindle list. I have given up on modern mysteries because they concentrate on the dysfunctional detective rather than the puzzle and characters involved in it. Dr. Thorndyke may be a wee bit odd, but he is gloriously angst-free. I can see why these books faded away. They are slow and dry. But they have the charm of watching someone intelligent wrestling with techniques that seem old hat today. I have read two stories and am enjoying them.

What a deal! 99 cents for a well-written, witty, engaging 4-volume compendium!
I agree with another reviewer: I would love to see these made into a BBC series.

I didn't know that there were such books written so long ago and I'm enjoying these stories. I hope other give them a read!

Since I hadn't read anything with this character previously I will address both the content and the formatting.

Kindle formatting and navigation: Linked table of contents to the individual books and anthologies (nice) but not to the chapters within the books (would've been nice to have). Scalable font. The pictures were a bit wasted on the six inch screen but they were nice to have on the PC app. All in all formatting is a 4.5 out of 5, the half star being deducted for the lack of chapter links.

Content: I enjoyed meeting Dr. Thorndyke and Dr. Jervis but I didn't get as attached to them as to, say, Poirot or Miss Marple or Sherlock Holmes. There was much less of "them" present in the works... although the fact that Dr. Thorndyke never quite figured out how inept Dr. Jervis was grated a little... maybe I am too used to watching Poirot and Holmes watch indulgently as Hastings and Watson bumble along to believe anyone could be blind to his inadequacies. The mysteries themselves were generally pretty decent, and the detective work was quite interesting. Of the three long tales one of the three was incredibly predictable, and two of the three were moderately predictable. The short stories were far more enjoyable although they were also mostly predictable. They were fun and kept me reading more so than the novels did. If I had to guess at the goal of the author just from these four works I would have to say that he was trying to illustrate new methods of detection and problem solving in an entertaining way much more than he was trying to tell stories about interesting characters. Novels 3.5 stars. Short stories 4 stars.

Decent read. Might try to find some other short story collections with these characters.