Here are two more books I have read recently, but of which I don't have a lot to say. I mean, i suppose I could write a lot more about each one, but at the same time I don't really feel like it, although I still want to leave some reference to having read them.
Death at the Sanatorium by author Ragnar Jonasson is my first attempt with this author. I had no expectation beyond the notion this would include a mystery and a police investigation.
This was a story with potential and did include several elements we often seen in mystery novels, with people doing weird/suspicious things and people seemingly having complicated motivations and/or life choices. I was intrigued, no doubt about it but I will be honest and say I wasn't fond of the writing style. Everything is kind of superficial and there are way too many things being hinted at that don't have a matching development. This made the story feel rather disjointed and focused on things that don't really matter. I've found the mystery to be quite thin and the killer's reasons to be poorly explained.
The author wrote this as a sort of homage to his love for crime books similar to Agatha Christie (an author I have read and like) and I can see where he went with it in how this book was structured. Unfortunately, the result was only average to me. I might try another one of his books, perhaps the writing style of one of those might suite me better.
The author wrote this as a sort of homage to his love for crime books similar to Agatha Christie (an author I have read and like) and I can see where he went with it in how this book was structured. Unfortunately, the result was only average to me. I might try another one of his books, perhaps the writing style of one of those might suite me better.
Grade: 6/10
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A Mulher que Correu Atrás do Vento by author João Tordo is yet another book by this Portuguese author I have been reading for some years now. The title might be literally translated as "the woman who chased the wind" and is the tale of four women who have some sort of connection, even though they lived in different time periods. I've found this book to be as well written and as emotionally complex as most of his books and by now I'm already used to his "voice", which means that this went on as smoothly as i imagined. However, I will say that part of this book's plot references some situations and includes characters who also appear in another book. By chance, I did read that one before but chronologically what happens in this one comes first. Well, it did kind of change my perception of some things and I will admit it did affect part of my experience.
The four main women are Lisbeth in the late 19th century, then Graça in 1976, then Beatriz and Lia after the 1990s. I didn't particularly like the women in the past periods, not that they were bad people, but the surroundings of their lives just didn't captivate me. Beatriz and Lia also seemed more interesting, from a psychological POV, but this time, the back and forth between so many people and all of them dealing with some sort of tragedy... well, I won't think of this book as part of my favorites by the author.
Grade: 5/10
The four main women are Lisbeth in the late 19th century, then Graça in 1976, then Beatriz and Lia after the 1990s. I didn't particularly like the women in the past periods, not that they were bad people, but the surroundings of their lives just didn't captivate me. Beatriz and Lia also seemed more interesting, from a psychological POV, but this time, the back and forth between so many people and all of them dealing with some sort of tragedy... well, I won't think of this book as part of my favorites by the author.
Grade: 5/10
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