5 reviews for The Dead Hour – Robert Bryndza

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  Sammy30/08/2024

  Getting a bit obsessed with Denise Mina! She’s a relatively recent discovery for me and I just love her books – such a brilliant writer – great plots and characters. This is a brilliant trilogy and I’ve loved every one of them, including this one. So much so, I’ve just read them one after another.

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  Ole30/08/2024

  Very good description of characters and sense of place. However the plot has important holes that detract from the narrative and from understanding character’s motivations.

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  Owd Mac30/08/2024

  This is the 2nd novel starring Paddy Meehan that I have read. There is something endearing and compelling about her. She is a young, slightly overweight, news gal living in 1980’s Glascow, Scotland. She always seems to get the scut jobs and, of course, stumbles into a murder situation. She is clever, street smart and working her way out of poverty. Generally, I do not like too much personal detail in the murder mysteries like romance that overwhelms the mystery. But somehow Ms. Mina pulls it off very well.

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  新しもの好き30/08/2024

  スコットランド・グラスゴーで若い女性記者が走り回るシリーズ。スウエーデン作家リザ・マークルンド女史の描くタブロイド紙記者アニカ シリーズと似た香りがする。夜っぴて警察無線を傍受しつつ事件を追いかける野心満々の２０代前半金髪記者パディ・ミーハンはＤＶ通報ででかけた閑静な住宅街で屋内に顔を血だらけにしている女性を見かけた。女性は「たいしたことないわよ」と言い、戸口にでてきた男性が「これで口を閉ざしてくれ」とパディの手に５０ポンド札を押し込んでドアを閉めた。あくる朝その女性が殺されているのがわかり、警察が犯人と目される男を捕まえたが、パディは「その男は別人だ」と言い張る。別の事件を追ううちにパディの車が襲われて同僚が大やけどを負い、パディの身に危険が迫る。出だしはゆっくりで助走から次第に緊迫の度が増して知らぬ間に惹きこまれているのに気づくという作家ミーナ女史練達の技が冴える。パディは失業中の父親や妹などを抱えて独りで家計を支え、なんとか夜勤から抜けたいと上昇志向まる出しの元気娘だというあたりの話が結構スペースをとり、それが本筋にどういう価値を与えているのか単発読者としては疑問があるが、多分シリーズものとしてパディの生活の場をきちんと構築したいのだろう。

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  Ravenhill30/08/2024

  Second in the Paddy Meehan series. Takes place a few years after the first, as it seems they all do. I read right after the first.Main character is younger than I’m used to, flawed and fallible, and not a genius. Voice is omniscient. However, the observations of human nature and the way things unfold, even if the reader may be more clever than some of the characters, makes the novel worth the read, and made me want to read the next in the series, and the next.This is not a mystery that ties everything up with cute little bows. This is neither Nancy Drew nor Miss Marple. Nice, gritty realism I think women will be drawn to, even if they don’t fall in love with the characters. Men may also enjoy, of course. But women tend to be into the darker stuff, I think.Some sentences are wonderful and made me want to call someone and say “listen to this” but instead, I am recommending the books.