Helpful Score: 3
I am a fan of Matthew Pearl and have thoroughly enjoyed all of his work. This book, however, fell short of his previous offerings.
While I found this book entertaining enough, I don't feel like it lives up to the suspense and intrigue of "The Dante Club," nor does it have the same depth or historical fact-finding qualities as "The Poe Shadow."
This book was worth reading but it was not memorable. I would recommend it to others but not very enthusiastically. I thought that Pearl could have done so much more with the elements of the story itself, and any suspense the story created was destroyed with such a cop-out ending that I almost tossed the book across the room in resignation and disblief.
It is unfortunate that this book came to market around the same time "Drood" by Dan Simmons. I have now read each author's book and it is fascinating to see how two completely different books can come from the same basic historical elements. I believe in saving the best for last, so if you intend to read both books I recommend that you start with "The Last Dickens" and end with "Drood."
No offense is intended for Mr. Pearl (whose work I truly like very much), but in this particular case his tale was too simple, too contrived, a little too predictable, and ultimately not the caliber of work I would come to expect from him. It is an average book worth about 3 stars. It is good but not great, and I feel like the book sold itself short and could have been (or should have been) so much better.
While I found this book entertaining enough, I don't feel like it lives up to the suspense and intrigue of "The Dante Club," nor does it have the same depth or historical fact-finding qualities as "The Poe Shadow."
This book was worth reading but it was not memorable. I would recommend it to others but not very enthusiastically. I thought that Pearl could have done so much more with the elements of the story itself, and any suspense the story created was destroyed with such a cop-out ending that I almost tossed the book across the room in resignation and disblief.
It is unfortunate that this book came to market around the same time "Drood" by Dan Simmons. I have now read each author's book and it is fascinating to see how two completely different books can come from the same basic historical elements. I believe in saving the best for last, so if you intend to read both books I recommend that you start with "The Last Dickens" and end with "Drood."
No offense is intended for Mr. Pearl (whose work I truly like very much), but in this particular case his tale was too simple, too contrived, a little too predictable, and ultimately not the caliber of work I would come to expect from him. It is an average book worth about 3 stars. It is good but not great, and I feel like the book sold itself short and could have been (or should have been) so much better.
