Reviews and Comments

Last instalment in the series. As twisty as the others - I think the series got its twistbooster around #5 or so, and the 4-5 last one definitely need to be read one after another. Of course it is possible not to, but you'd miss some details. All in all a very good series, if you like murder/thriller/detective series it is definitely recommended.

The master of plot twist is at it again. This one also ends up on a cliff hanger, so you'd better make sure you have the next instalment ready as well before you start DCI MOran #8 if you don't wanna die of frustration....

This is the follow-up to "the ennemy inside" so having reading it is not really a pre-requisite but strongly recommended. Other than that, Scott must have taken a master course in plot-twist. Again !!! definitely recommended

I'll call this matrioshka, with a plot twist nested in a plot twist nested in a plot twist :-)

Probably the longest it has taken me to finish a book, but for my defense, it's a 1300 page book :-). This was a complete discovery of a rather old series. The book collects all 71 of the Solar Pons stories by Derleth, which are pastiches of the Sherlock Holmes tales of Arthur Conan Doyle written in 1928 and onwards. And GREAT pastiche at that ! If you've read and enjoyed the original SH, you should love Solar Pons. Everything is copied, including the writing style. I found those stories both thrilling and hilarious. The nods and winks abound, including to Poirot (renamed Poiret and suddenly french instead of Belgian), and to time travel.

Definitely recommended.

Disappointed by the book. While the plot in itself is not bad, what killed me is this: the hero is supposed to be french, and the action happening in Paris. First anywhere he's going is described with plenty of useless details which only give the impression the author has never set foot in Paris and is working with a map in front of him: He took rue Lepic then made a left rue Chambrol to end up at the crossing of rue Bicagnol and Posmeyer or something in the way thereof. Talk about I'm paid by the word so I'll add as many as I can, never mind if they're useless. And then of course the french is plain wrong - gender and grammar error kill it completely if you happen to really speak french. I'm sure for english readers throwing in the odd word adds a je-ne-sais-quoi to the story, but I just couldn't believe that somebody as known as the author couldn't be bothered to have the french checked by a french speaker. Spoiled it a lot for me. But if you don't speak french, go ahead, have fun !

J'aimais bien Alistair, mais cela a quand même un peu (tout petit peu) vieilli :-)

Third installment - can be read separately, but as usual, better if you've read the previous ones (and can stand the repetitions for those who haven't). Again - nice and easy reading, many plot twists :-)

Kind of follow-up to the previous one. Still nice, but the author doesn't play fair. For me the reader should have all the pieces to be able to solve the riddle, and here, you don't, so no much of a chance to solve the mysteries. Too bad. Still does for nice reading.

Probably the first McCall I did not fully and thoroughly enjoyed. Rare enough to be mentionned. Somehow not his usual style ? Or maybe I'm tired ? You figure it out...