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Title: I, Richard by ELIZABETH GEORGE ISBN: 0-553-38242-X Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 29 July, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.04 (24 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: I love Elizabeth George's novels; I disliked this book
Comment: I'm a great Elizabeth George fan. She is one of a small number of writers whose works I buy in hardbound.
But I'm afraid she's no short story writer.
The collection gets off to a bad start with "Exposure," which ought to be interesting to George fans because of the presence of detective Thomas Lynley. But the story is a mess. I don't understand the perpetrator's motive. The "puzzle" aspect is poorly presented--we're not really given enough of a clue to solve the puzzle ourselves. The perpetrator actually commits two crimes--and I don't believe that the methods used to commit either crime would have worked in real life.
Three of the the stories feature "O. Henry endings," none of which, in my opinion, quite come off.
The title story, "I, Richard" intertwines a sort of pseudo-mystery story concerning the truth about Richard III and the Princes in the Tower, with a modern-day murder story. Unfortunately, to someone who isn't a "Ricardian," the Richard III part is muddled and boring--and the framing murder mystery is unbelievable, except for the ending--which is all too predictable.
Similar motifs recur in several of the stories--giving a slightly stale or repetitious flavor to the collection.
Perhaps the best is "Good Fences Aren't Always Enough," which comes close to being sad and touching. But all of them, even this one, read more like extended jokes than like real stories. The characters in them are paper cutouts. The author's attitude toward her characters is remote and almost contemptuous. She never seems involved with them, nor do we. The stories succeed neither as slices of life nor as clever little clockwork gadgets.
And, incidentally, the book is a rather poor value. There are only five stories in it. It's thin, the type is large, and the lines are widely spaced. By my estimate, it contains roughly about 70,000 words (for [money amount]) or about one-fifth as many as "A Traitor to Memory" ([money amount]). Distinctly short measure, to my way of thinking.
Rating: 1
Summary: Not worth reading
Comment: Let me state up front that I only read the first two stories in the collection so this review in based only on those stories. If you plan to read this book, this review gives away the plot of the two stories so read no further. In the first story the thief steals 2 goblets from the estate but kills a man in the process for absolutely no reason (unless, of course, you find it believable that someone would commit cold-blooded murder as a diversion for the theft of a few thousand dollars). The second story, a psychological thriller, has similar problems. A man, at his volunteer job, sneaks home to kill his wife and is faced, after the murder, with a surprise birthday party!! How would the wife ever know he was coming home? How could she possibly create this surprise? These plot structures are so fatal as to make the stories, no matter how well written, unbelievable. Readers should stick with her novels.
Rating: 1
Summary: About the audiobook...
Comment: I'm a Road Warrior, spending many hours behind the wheel of my car which I special-ordered with both a cassette tape deck and a CD-player so that I could have a larger selection of audio-books. I'm surprised that the other reviewers did not mention the appalling narration of "I, Richard" (audio-book version) by Derek Jacobi. Mr. Jacobi is a fine actor, based on my experience with "Masterpiece Theatre", but his impression of an American accent sounds like Attila the Hun on helium. Since most of the short stories in this collection are set in America and have characters who are young women, Mr. Jacobi's unintentionally hilarious accent made me wish I could award this recording "negative stars".
2nd fatal mistake of this production - the "Interview with the Author" was in fact conducted by a young American woman (who managed to sound worse than Jacobi's bad impression of a young American woman) mechanically reading trite questions with no real enthusiasm or interaction with the author. Ms. George has a pleasant voice and is thoughtful and articulate, and I very much wanted to ask her a question: "Ms. George, your introduction to one of the stories (the first one, I think) indicated that in an earlier version you killed off the wrong character. Who did you kill, and why?" I mean, what's the point of an interview that doesn't rise above cliches?
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Title: A Place of Hiding by ELIZABETH GEORGE ISBN: 0553801309 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 29 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: A Traitor to Memory by Elizabeth George ISBN: 0553582364 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 27 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Deception on His Mind by ELIZABETH GEORGE ISBN: 0553575090 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 06 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Playing for the Ashes by ELIZABETH GEORGE ISBN: 0553572512 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner by Elizabeth George ISBN: 0553575104 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 31 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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