Brilliant but flawed

I have always been in two minds about Paul Sussman. He has the ability to grip from the beginning; his canvas spreads across the Middle East both ancient and modern and his knowledge of the area, it's customs, people and history oozes from the story. He tells epic tales in a way that, in the main, urges the reader/listener unrelentingly to the end. I absolutely adore his characters, especially Inspector Khalifa. On the other hand his novels can be too real for the reader/listener who is after some simple escapism. He deals unrelentingly and, to my mind, with too much detail with topics such as, children's deaths, prostitution and rape. The level of swearing by the main characters might put some off. There are areas where he lets himself down by lazy writing. There is too much reliance on coincidence and his protagonists consistently put themselves in positions of peril through sheer bloodymindedness. Having said the above I have read all of his novels and would have continued to do so but for his early death - the brilliance outshines the flaws. The narration of this talking book is excellent. Gordon Griffiths copes extremely well with dialogue with different accents without letting any of them slip.

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4 people found this helpful

very good

Very good story well worth the 1 credit, love the dynamic between the two main characters but wished the was a bit more story around the mine

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Excellent!

Having read or listened to all of author Paul Sussman's previous books I was really looking forward to this one and it certainly did not disappoint.

An intriguing fast paced story with many twists and turns - a thoroughly good listen and I highly recommend it!

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5 people found this helpful

Enjoyable and different

I have not read / heard books of this author and am glad I found this one. Most thriller/ detective stories are fairly predictable, this is not. It has a theme that is different, modern and thought provoking in many different ways. I recommend it without reservation.

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Enjoyable book, shame about the editing

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Labyrinth of Osiris?

Firstly I'd completely re-edit the audio file to remove the duplicate sections where the sections of the text are repeated (at least 10 times throughout the book and often mid sentence) There are also sections of the audio where there is interference or crackle which can be frustrating at times

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed the book and would recommend it however would struggle to recommend this audio version. The performance itself is perfectly good without ever being outstanding however this has been very badly recorded and edited making some sections very frustrating and difficult to listen to. Having read the previous books in this series I would gladly recommend them all however until they fix the audio file would recommend reading rather than listening where possible.

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1 person found this helpful

I concede defeat

I have managed to get half way through the book and cannot listen any more. I found myself
drifting from the story. I could honestly not tell you what the book is about, it's just words...
My apologies for the appalling review but there is nothing more to say, the story is not engaging, I still don't who is who and I'm still waiting for something to happen!!

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1 person found this helpful