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Cassie Osbourne (6 KP) rated An Officer and a Spy in Books

Nov 9, 2018

An Officer and a Spy

Robert Harris | 2014 | Fiction & Poetry

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

The Dreyfus Affair was one of the biggest miscarriages of justice that France (and possibly the world) has ever seen and this book presents the story through the eyes of Colonel Georges Picquart.

Towards the beginning, I was a little disappointed in the book. The writing style is brilliant and how faithful it is to actual events is great but in some ways, this is also its downfall. The conspiracy went on for years which makes the pacing very slow in parts and incredibly quick and exciting in others. All the characters in this book, even the tiny bit characters, were real people tied up in the affair; however, none of these characters has any real development until the very end and only for a short amount of time. As someone who favours character-driven story arcs rather than plot-driven ones, this was very frustrating for me to read as they all seemed to be very one dimensional (with the exception, perhaps, of Henry) and it doesn't really make any of them terribly likeable.

All that being said, I did very much enjoy the last two hundred or so pages where the pace really picked up and became exciting as everything seemed to come together rather than people sitting on files and information - but this is, of course, the nature of courtrooms and trials.

Although I probably won't read this book again, I am glad that I did as it introduced me to an interesting army conspiracy in France that I will definitely be doing more research in to.

Characters - 6/10
Atmosphere - 9/10
Writing Style - 8/10
Plot - 7/10 (score majorly affected by pacing)
Intrigue - 6.5/10 (as above)
Logic - 10/10 (real events so difficult to score lower)
Enjoyment - 6.5/10 (again pacing and lack of character development)

Score average - 7.8/10

Kudos

Scott Tostik (389 KP) rated Three on A Meathook (1972) in Movies

Jan 6, 2019

The Porno 70's Soundtrack (1 more)

The Dad character

About a million gratuitous boob shots (1 more)

The plot is somewhat absent...ish

Huh.... Kinda cool...ish

Contains spoilers, click to show

When you review cheesy horror films for fun while your fiancee is alseep.... And you have to keep the volune down so you can barely hear the drivel that most scripted movies spew out... Captions are always an option.
When they work...
This movie is sorta bad to begin with. The camera work is sub par. Tue acting is all around shite. And lets be honest here.... The only good part about this film was the creativity of the kills for the time it was made.
The movie breaks down at the halfway point when it turns into Billy goes to tue city lookin for love and all he finds is a brunette skank who wants to come to his farm after knowing him for 15 seconds in a bar.... But its true love
Lobg story short... Billy's Daddy is a psychopath... Blood is spilt... Carnage insues... And boobs are flashed a plenty....
But not even glorious tan lined hooters can save this thing.... Only reason i rated it what i did... Is because i could see how modern day horror film writers and directors would use this as source material for writing their own slasher style scripts. Its groundbreaking... I admit that... It's just not... Well... It's not Black Christmas enough to be considered the first slasher style film of the 70's... Watch it if you want to.... I recommend it to those who want to go into horror directing or writing as both things to do and not to do.
On to the next....

Kudos

Midge (525 KP) rated Batter Off Dead in Books

Dec 11, 2018 (Updated Dec 20, 2018)

Batter Off Dead

Maymee Bell | 2018 | Mystery, Thriller

9.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Thoroughly enjoyable read (3 more)

I liked the author's descriptive style

Great for foodies - you can almost smell the cakes baking while you are reading!

Good portrayal of the lead character's relationship with her best friend

Not a lot of romance (0 more)

Absolutely Delightful!

Sophia Cummings, the owner of For Goodness Cakes, is catering for a charity fundraiser at Grape Valley Winery and must make it a successful event to win more catering jobs and pay the bills. Ray Peel, the Winery's landlord, has pledged to pay off a library loan in her hometown of Rumford, however, the event turns sour and Ray is murdered before the loan and Sophia can be paid. Can she figure out who the murderer is before the bakery collapses?

I have never read any of Maymee Bell's novels before, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. I particularly liked the author's descriptive style, especially the many references to the cakes sold at the bakery which were described so well that you could almost smell them baking in the oven! The portrayal of Sophia's relationships, especially Madison, her best friend, and Bitsy, her mother were also very good, although I think that there could have been a little more spark between Sophia and Carter Kincaid, her sheriff boyfriend. You were introduced to many characters very quickly at the start of the book which was a little confusing at first, however, I like that I was kept guessing all the way through as to the identity of the murderer. The ending to the book was finished off very nicely and I will be reading more Maymee Bell novels in the future.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book, supplied by Netgalley.