An odd one

The idea is good. The story lines are predictable so don’t read this if you like a whodunnit. The female narrator is not good in my opinion - inconsistent and sometimes questionable accents. If she continues with the series I probably won’t listen to more.

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Great fun

A throughly good romp which will make you smile and enjoy the many mysteries solved

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Different

Very much enjoyed it. A little corny perhaps but I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this take on old characters

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Great fun

A crime story with a difference. It was so fast paced one was able to ignore the discrepancies. The characters were a breath of fresh air and I long to meet them again.

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A good story

Moves along nicely. the plot is constantly evolving with a few surprises thrown in. The narration is first class

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You should’ve seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe …

This is a novel that must’ve sounded fairly barmy in the planning stages, like a pitch at a brainstorm meeting which was initially regarded as a bit of a joke - then, against the odds, got the green light for publication. Then again, it’s by James Patterson, who has sold 230million books. He knows what he’s doing, and in this case what he’s doing is bringing in a collaborator - the TV writer Brian Sitts. The premise is simple. It’s set in the present day. Three hotshot private eyes launch an agency in New York City. They’re called Brendan Holmes, Margaret Marple and Auguste Poe. Which may sound familiar… not only that, they share some of the attributes of their namesakes - the legendary fictional sleuths created by Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. In the case of Poe, his name is an echo of C. Auguste Dupin, a creation of Edgar Allan Poe. Dupin was a kind of amateur detective who blazed a trail for Holmes, first appearing in a short story in 1841. There are uncanny similarities between these modern-day investigators and their fictional counterparts. Unlike the originals, though, their style of crime-fighting is a little edgier. There are guns and fast cars, and some racy scenes. The mysteries they unravel are interesting enough, sometimes gory. They’re not a patch on the kind of crimes Holmes et al came up against in terms of their novelty - some of the plot strands owe more to Thomas Harris than Conan Doyle. The methods of detection are a little different, too. Modern police techniques are sometimes used. It’s a kind of brazen, heretical exercise, doubtless with one eye on a Netflix adaptation. Which might work… The strangest thing is that this is actually an entertaining listen. For the most part, it all makes sense, though I wasn’t 100 per cent sure at all times what was going on - there are many parallel investigations. There are multiple narrators. That’s not ideal … it’s told in the third person, so you’ll find a female narrator attempting Poe’s voice, for example, or a male narrator attempting a female voice. Fair enough, but I would’ve preferred one narrator. Purists will rightly give this a wide berth. But if you’re looking for something a little different, this is diverting enough. Doubtless other titles will follow. Maybe in the next one a modernised Poirot will team up with the existing trio… oh, and that sound you hear in the background is Conan Doyle and the others spinning in their graves.

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38 people found this helpful

Fun but not a classic

Positive - lots of action and inventive plots
Negative - overly cliched and under developed characters

Feels like a draft outline for a tv mini series

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Superb story and characters

Was sceptical as to whether I would enjoy this book but I really shouldn’t have been.
The characters bring their own quirks and are superb as individuals and as the team they are also in the book.
So much going on in the book yet all of it flows and is brought to a conclusion beautifully.
Hope there is more to come

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well read, but too many different people reading it doing the same characters.

left me confused, the crimes are solved more by coincidences then deducted nothing was explained like in an Sherlock homes book or Agatha Christie. very simplistic mystery. won't be bothering with any future stories. very meh

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Way better than normal Patterson drivel

Great characters, punchy story, always something happening.
Would love to read more from the person who actually wrote this book before Patterson put his name to it

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