Halil Asiran Asiran itibaren Kato Viannos 700 04, Greece itibaren Kato Viannos 700 04, Greece

Finally the corps has accreted enough characters with enough history to become more interesting, the pace has picked up, and the author has loosened up his plodding style enough to flirt with puns and a little wit. If this were the first of the series, it could make me much more likely to actually want to read it. (8)

Slow start. This was a book that difinitely came into its own in the second half. From that point on, the characters started to develop and I became more involved with the narrative. The last section, where we finally hear from the central character, 'the woman' referred to on the back cover, was excellent, but for me, the book had dropped to four stars before then. The snapshot chapters we read at the beginning are, in fact, witness statements, given to an inspector who is following in the footsteps of 'Ines' (the woman), as she journeys from a hotel in Tunisia, via an Sicillian beach, to Berlin, in search of her son. Unfortunately these statements were rather shallow and I struggled to recall them when I needed to refer back to them to corroborate Ines's story. She actually came across a fair amount of kindness on her journey, and some inevitable cruelty too, but without knowing her character at that time, it was hard to feel emotional. I was also a bit surprised at the mix of languages spoken and the number of people who were choosing to speak English, in spite of the fact that most of the action took place in Italy and Germany, that didn't quite ring true for me. The ending was satisfying, in an unsatisfactory sort of way, believable anyway. I haven't read anything else by Lloyd Jones, but I do like that he is obviously experimenting with his book construction and I would certainly give him another go. Even if it has flaws, it's always a breath of fresh air to read something a bit different.