2.0 out of 5 stars
Slow and full of continuity errors, September 8, 2011
Two murders, one in England and one in the United States, seem to have been commited by the same person. What connection do the vice president of the United States have to the murders, who is the mysterious person who was recently released from an asylum, and why does the government seem to want to stop the investigation? These are some of the questions that Tweed and his team must find an answer to in "The Vorpal Blade".
Colin Forbes takes our protagonists to Maine and Switzerland, but there is little action; most of the time is spent talking and following up obscure leads. Most of the time, Tweed and his team feel like amateurs, relying more on luck than skill to find the murderer. There are also some rather strange continuity errors. For example, Monica, their assistant do research into the Arbogast family and tell Tweed that the vice president is Roman Arbogast's cousin, and yet Tweed and his colleagues go on talking about how they don't know what the vice president's connection to the Arbogast family is. And they mention how they don't remember who it was that they were told liked to go sailing, when in fact they weren't told until the next chapter. This seemed to be very important but later, when Paula is told who it was, she doesn't reflect about it at all but again the next day she mentions she can't remember who it was. I got the feeling Forbes himself didn't remember several key elements in the story, because there were so many strange errors like this.
Still, there are a few (short) sequences that are almost (but not quite) suspenseful, but most of the time the story is not very interesting at all.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4.0 out of 5 stars
No, not Lewis Carroll, January 26, 2011
Despite the title, Jabberwocky has nothing to do with it. It's actually Tweed and the gang on the trail of the usual assortment of strange villains, this time a dysfunctional traveling banking family. Tweed responds to the mysterious (of course) beheading of a former associate and the gang (Bob Newman, Paula Grey, et al.) end up on a tour of eastern France, northern Italy and Switzerland. Forbes is acquired taste, especially for American thriller readers. He's comfortable, tweedy, and veddy, veddy British--sort of Ian Fleming without the ladies and Beretta. Stirred, not shaken. (Great fun: use Google Maps to follow his travels. Some of the hotels are(very)thinly disguised and others have become part of chains, but it's not hard to find them.)
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No