Sunday 14 December 2014

Book review: Lamentation

I enjoyed it. It is even, in places, exciting. But I doubt I'd re-read it.

By C. J. Sansom, in the "Shardlake" series.

Good points: interesting, long, decent story. Feels quite authentic - whatever that means; but at least there's not too much that jars. A few things do - at one point a character says "By the way," which doesn't feel right. The politics mostly feel right. The book of the title - Lamentations of a sinner - appears to actually exist.

There's a sub-plot about a bitter dispute between two siblings about ownership of a wall painting. This serves to pad out some sections of the book, but once its done, its a bit "huh" - what was it in there for? Perhaps just an interesting detail? But it felt somewhat more like filling. Maybe. Indeed the book lacks a bit of cohesion towards the end... it all rather peters out, before we finally discover whodunnit.

That reads somewhat negatively. But, as I said, I enjoyed it; its good.

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