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As was his first book this one is very will written, fast paced with twists in the plot keeping you turning those pages.

But unlike Child 44 it had lost this unique setting of serial murders in a Stalinist Russia refusing to admit the existence of such crimes. Which makes it more like many other books set in a Western context in that regard.

As was his first book this one is very will written, fast paced with twists in the plot keeping you turning those pages.

But unlike Child 44 it had lost this unique setting of serial murders in a Stalinist Russia refusing to admit the existence of such crimes. Which makes it more like many other books set in a Western context in that regard.

A serial killer novel with a twist: it's located in the Soviet Union during the Stalin era. Don't forget that according to the communist propaganda crime only happened in capitalist countries being the consequences of a corrupt society.

Which means that the main character of this novel undertakes the investigation of more than 40 child murders against the police system.

A very vivid description of life under a communist system where everybody mistrusts everybody else, down you close members of the family be it wife, brother or son. This aspect of the book comes to a peak when Leo, the main character, has to sneak in an apartment occupied by two different families at night in the dark in order to be able to whisper a few words to his parents for fear of waking up the other family and be denounced and arrested.

A serial killer novel with a twist: it's located in the Soviet Union during the Stalin era. Don't forget that according to the communist propaganda crime only happened in capitalist countries being the consequences of a corrupt society.

Which means that the main character of this novel undertakes the investigation of more than 40 child murders against the police system.

A very vivid description of life under a communist system where everybody mistrusts everybody else, down you close members of the family be it wife, brother or son. This aspect of the book comes to a peak when Leo, the main character, has to sneak in an apartment occupied by two different families at night in the dark in order to be able to whisper a few words to his parents for fear of waking up the other family and be denounced and arrested.

Very well written book that tells the story of Princeton students deciphering a renaissance book by solving different riddles contained in the book itself.

I was a bit bothered by the place taken by the friendship and love anecdotes between the students, the difference between the two levels of discourse and the somewhat inflated importance of a trivial love relationship revealing maybe the youthfulness of the authors.

Very well written book that tells the story of Princeton students deciphering a renaissance book by solving different riddles contained in the book itself.

I was a bit bothered by the place taken by the friendship and love anecdotes between the students, the difference between the two levels of discourse and the somewhat inflated importance of a trivial love relationship revealing maybe the youthfulness of the authors.

The first 3/4 of the book reads more like an introduction to rural life in France, going into lengthy details about gastronomy and local customs, with a murder serving as a pretext.

The last quarter is more densely woven leading back to historical reasons for the murder dating back to the occupation. In my humble opinion the first 75% of the book would have benefited quite a bit from a serious pruning.

The first 3/4 of the book reads more like an introduction to rural life in France, going into lengthy details about gastronomy and local customs, with a murder serving as a pretext.

The last quarter is more densely woven leading back to historical reasons for the murder dating back to the occupation. In my humble opinion the first 75% of the book would have benefited quite a bit from a serious pruning.

That should actually be 0 star. Full of the worst cliches, cheap tourist guide info about Paris and it's history.
But the worst is the writing. The author manages to at the same time make leaps and bounds which leave us clueless and repeating the same information over and over. The resulting impression is that of zapping on the TV while in each new channel seeing recurring scenes from what we've seen on previous channels.
Not for me thank you.

That should actually be 0 star. Full of the worst cliches, cheap tourist guide info about Paris and it's history.
But the worst is the writing. The author manages to at the same time make leaps and bounds which leave us clueless and repeating the same information over and over. The resulting impression is that of zapping on the TV while in each new channel seeing recurring scenes from what we've seen on previous channels.
Not for me thank you.

I was surprised. Usually not a fan of short stories, I prefer to plunge in a book and soak in its atmosphere for a while, leaving it for a few hours and looking so much forward to returning to it.

In this book each single story is a whole book in miniature, Rankin is especially good at establishing the mood with just a few sentences, the characters sketched in few but efficient words.

Probably going to explore more short stories to see how other writers manage.