Thursday, 19 April 2018

John Harvey - Body & Soul


Rating: 2/5

Review:
Slow and rather silly


I'm afraid I struggled to about half way in Body and Soul and then gave up.  It's been some time since I read and enjoyed some of John Harvey's Resnick novels and I'm sorry to have to say this, but this really isn't a patch on them.

Harvey can still write well and create a good atmosphere and sense of place.  However, his ability to present a believable  plot with people who behave at least semi-plausibly seems to have deserted him.  I just found the whole thing a slog through a slow, slow set-up, a lot of extraneous detail, pretty far-fetched events and psychology and so on.  I diligently read on until a wholly ridiculous extra twist was thrown into the mix around half way and decided life was too short.

I am very sad to be so critical of an author I have liked in the past, but I found Body and Soul a real disappointment and can't recommend it.

(My thanks to Heinemann for an ARC via NetGalley.)

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