Gudrun

As I live in the North myself, I can tell you that Paver captures the feeling of the cold and isolation extremely well. A simple premise, but Paver explores relationships between friends and man and dog effectively. Class issues permeate through the relationships between the men and the main character comes to new understandings through his experiences and is a changed man by the end of the book. A unique book which I would highly recommend. The narration was excellent.

A bit slow and uninspiring. I only listened to this as part of a course I am doing, otherwise I wouldn't have chosen it. I think it's a bit pretentious.

Solid Agatha Christie, although not very suspenseful as I was able to guess quite easily whodunnit.

There is one positive in this book: the characterization. Otherwise, I'm afraid to say that it was ridiculous. The plot was overly complicated to the point of silliness.

Normally I enjoy a good Agatha Christie, it is one of my "safe" choices for when I really want something to listen to and don't want to take a chance on trying something new, but this story was a bit too contrived. It was still tolerable to listen to, but not one of Christie's best.

I wanted a nice version to listen to on Christmas Eve and was disappointed in this lack lustre performance. I think I will read it out myself next year.

This book started off being quite well observed, but it hit a point where it moves forward in time and after that it became a different book. It was repetitive and boring. Suspending belief only goes so far and then it hits the point where it loses tension and excitement as you stop caring about the characters. Very disappointing after it promises to explore an interesting idea but overdoes it on every front.

This was terrible. The main character is a poor imitation of James Bond but he is incompetent and I would never want him investigating any murder. All he did was sleep with different women who then were totally unrealistic in their dealings with him. The only reason I listened to the whole story was because the beginning was promising. Unfortunately things declined and by the end I really had nothing good to say about it.

I found myself agreeing with other reviewers regarding the slow pace of this book in comparison with other James Bond stories. However, I did enjoy it and liked the female character as well as following the culinary habits of Bond - he always eats the best food!

A real, clever mystery. Gruesome in parts, keeps you guessing. A great story, well told.

James Bond in the book is much harder than Bond from the films, making him a much more interesting character. Moments of real excitement. I cannot believe that I liked this book so much.