Another one I think readers can safely pass on. The two key problems with this book are its frustrating heroine and the fact that White creates such devious crooks that she can’t come up with a credible way of rescuing her protagonist.
The pace is peculiarly slow in this one and seems to embody the juxtaposing label of a passive thriller. Notwithstanding the intriguing metafictional premise of a thriller writer being imprisoned by the man she thought was going to marry her and being compelled to write a thriller on her current experience, this novel doesn’t deliver. This was my last read by White and unfortunately it was not a very strong one. The romance element is also brought about in an unconvincing manner. Then when the mystery begins to appear promising the other plot threads demanding attention tear the narrative away from it and ultimately it is not resolved in a satisfactory fashion.
Firstly, it has too many plot elements thrown in and the quantity of them affects the quality of how they are developed. Yet the opening lines indicate that: ‘There was nothing to warn her that, within the next hour she would be selected as a victim to be murdered.’ But despite the comic crime premise, this book does not pan out well. The plot of this story centres on Miss Loveapple as she goes about her ordinary life, visiting London and going on holiday to Switzerland. As in my review I strongly recommend not starting with this book first, (or at all really!)
The book is too long, and the thin plot is so full of near-crisis situations that when the full-blown crisis finally appears, the reader has no enthusiasm remaining to care what happens to Anna. However, the setting is not enough to compensate for the tedium which ensues, and which really does revolve around the protagonist, Anna’s, inability to get on a train. My review title says it all: How Hard Can It Be To Catch a Train? I was drawn to try this tale by its unusual setting – Communist 1930s Russia. So without further ado, let’s begin with the title in last place…ĩ th Place – The Elephant Never Forgets (1937)ĭespite having read this book over a month ago I am still recovering from the irritation this story aroused. Unlike some of the other rankings I have done this list was pretty easy to decide upon. Having made it over the halfway mark I thought it might be time for another of my ranked lists. Of these 17 I have to date read 9 of them.
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