Customer Reviews

Where Have All the Birdies Gone?

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

 

 

I have greatly enjoyed Aaron and Charlotte Elkins series of golf mysteries featuring Lee Ofsted, but this one was the best so far. The characterizations have deepened and become even more believable. The plot displayed heightened complexity and, as always, the reader is drawn into an interesting and emotionally satisfying story. With so many mystery writers succumbing to the formulaic approach, it is a great pleasure to read the work of a storyteller. Not that it reaches "great novel" status - it wasn't intended to! But it does offer an engaging and enjoyable mystery for the intelligent reader.

As for the monomaniac reviewer who dinged the book for a one-stroke golf "error," may your birdies be gone forever! Get a life. For the rest of us who care more about the overall quality of a book than in self-important nit-picking, this book delivers a hole in one!

The talented Elkins family produced a series of books starring a very junior professional golfer. This is a most entertaining and congenial entry. I doubt if anyone is less informed than I or less interested in golf as a participant or viewer; nevertheless I never felt myself an outsider. The book is written for anyone who can read, golfers welcome.
That reminds me!
In fact, one need not know how to read, since it is a recent book whose publisher did not restrain robotic reading on the Kindle. Robotic reading does not achieve the dramatic effects produced by the trained actors who, so often, magnify the impact of the prose they are reading. The male robotic voice on Kindle (there is also a female one which can be chosen) is understandable and, in general, creates a straightforward reading. It does take time, however, for the average person with no previous experience to develop the mind-set that allows one instantaneously to translate the mechanical reproduction into an acceptable text. I imagine that Amazon's electronics consultants (or staff) can easily tweak the process so as to produce better pronunciation of common words and better recognition of sentence modifiers. I have been pretty well satisfied with the kindle on this score.
My own enjoyment of the book centered on an appealing central character, the lady golfer, and the straightforward character of the text which does not linger lovingly on intricate details of no interest. So for a quick, easily read, light detective story, I can commend this book to you.

An entertaining book, marred by some formatting problems. There are multiple instances of strikeovers from the editing process that have left in the book. There are left-hand margin problems, also. The book was apparently taken from the British version, as it uses single-quotes all the way through (very distracting). It doesn't look as though anyone proofed this work as an ebook.

This is the fourth (?) volume of the adventures of Lee Olmstead, golf pro. I've enjoyed them all. I'm knock off one star for formatting issues that should have been caught.

I think that twelve dollars for the shipping and handling for one book is excessive. Book was an excellant price but the shipping and handling charges were a ripoff. I won't use this business again.