Polly

I have read so many of Tyler's books, and this is another excellent example of character development.

However, be warned that it is perhaps the most depressing book I ever read.

"Speaks the Nightbird" is a mystery. Is Rachel really a witch, or is she being framed?

Because the story takes place in 1699, there are no modern methods of testing for fingerprints, no Internet for background checks, no telegraph or telephone ... so an investigation takes legwork and time. LOTS of time. Perhaps it is my modern world impatience with the main character's slow approach necessitated by the era, but this book was difficult for me to get through.

Audible divides this book into four parts. At the end of Part I, I thought, "This is painfully slow. I'll never get to the end." There was virtually no suspense to encourage my interest and persistence.

However, the fourth quarter made it all worthwhile. Most of the action, all of the explanations, and of course the big reveal of "who dunnit" were in this quarter.

I should also add that the main character is fabulous, and the narrator is spectacular. Almost all of the characters had British accents, so Ballerini had to create a different tone and rhythm of speech for each. Absolutely perfect.

If you like really BAD bad guys and really GOOD good guys, you will enjoy this book.

Just be patient.

If science, particularly the origination of our understanding of dinosaurs and the theory of extinction, bores you, you will have trouble getting through this book. There is a lot of information about how fossils were first discovered in Lyme Regis, England (all true), and the difficulties some people (particularly religious people) had in believing in what these bones represented.

BUT it is also a story of friendship and of the first hints of women's rights. It is hard for my children to imagine a world in which a decent woman couldn't walk anywhere alone and wasn't allowed to join the geological society, but also all true.

I enjoyed the characters, and I do recommend this book.

Because I prefer mysteries with suspense and drama, it was a little tame for me, but is stiil well worth reading.

NO SPOILER

I love this series, but I particularly love the suspense and scare factor of certain books. I also value having to really think hard to figure out "who dunnit." "Reliquary" is a good example of a Pendergast book that was scary and was a challenging puzzle.

This one is different in both areas: it is not scary, and I figured out the secret of Helen's research from very near the beginning. But, I still enjoyed it.

First of all, I learned a lot about Agent Pendergast's early years. And secondly, it is just a good story.

So, yes, I recommend this one too!

I like stories with unreal aspects such as time travel, vampires, reptilian monsters, space aliens. But this set of short stories was not enjoyable at all. Each story just stopped ... there are no conclusions, no sense of understanding, no connection with the characters.

I ordered this book because someone on NPR recommended it (Maureen Corrigan who reviews books regularly). I will be very careful about taking her advice in the future.

I can't imagine a "bad" Agent Pendergast book. This is worth reading. But it was not as gripping as some.

Beware all reviews of this book - it is hard to write about without spoiling the experience and the plot. I had a certain expectation when I began the book, based on the summary. I was wrong.

But again a warning: if the summary has more than one paragraph, read only the first one.

The story is just pain good - and full of twists and turns.

As a parent of a difficult child, a child who had no friends at one point, this book was a little painful for me to read. But I encourage parents like me to read it anyway. It was, in the end, cathartic.

I will think about this story for a long time.

Preston & Child have done it again. I was dubious that a story taking place on a luxurious ocean liner could offer the tension and suspense that was evident in the subway murders. No reptilian creature, no crazy overgrown infant, but still scary and satisfying.

Rene Auberjonois's narration was superb.

The bad brother theme works well in this novel; not as scary as I'd like it to be, but still a very good book.

The Preston-Childs series starring Agent Pengergast hasn't let me down yet. I recommend them strongly - starting at book 1 and moving forward.

I was a huge Patricia Cornwell fan during the early years. But something happened. I keep hoping the next book will be better.

This book had dozens of the most frustrating conversations I have ever listened to.

K: "What happened?" B: "What do you think happened?"

K: "Are you saying that Fielding was involved?" B: "You've been gone for a long time, Kay."

To be fair, Cornwell addresses these problems in the narrative, but it was painful to read. And the whole thing seems like a prologue, no a book. I felt cheated.