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Location: Vero Beach, Florida, United States

My name is Pat and I live in Florida. My skin will never be smooth again and my hair will never see color. I enjoy collecting autographs and playing in Paint Shop Pro.,along with reading and writing. Sometimes, I enjoy myself by doing volunteer "work" helping celebrities at autograph shows. I love animals and at one time I did volunteer work for Tippi Hedren's Shambala Preserve.

Monday, October 11, 2010

The Meaning of Night

The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox.

Hardcover: 720 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company;(September 17, 2006)
ISBN-10: 0393062031

 

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Resonant with echoes of Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens, Cox's richly imagined thriller features an unreliable narrator, Edward Glyver, who opens his chilling "confession" with a cold-blooded account of an anonymous murder that he commits one night on the streets of 1854 London. That killing is mere training for his planned assassination of Phoebus Daunt, an acquaintance Glyver blames for virtually every downturn in his life. Glyver feels Daunt's insidious influence in everything from his humiliating expulsion from school to his dismal career as a law firm factotum. The narrative ultimately centers on the monomaniacal Glyver's discovery of a usurped inheritance that should have been his birthright, the byzantine particulars of which are drawing him into a final, fatal confrontation with Daunt. Cox's tale abounds with startling surprises that are made credible by its scrupulously researched background and details of everyday Victorian life. Its exemplary blend of intrigue, history and romance mark a stand-out literary debut.

Out of the books I have read for RIP, so far, this is my favorite! (followed by The Child Thief by Brom)

I didn't know if this would be a good read or not but when I opened the book I felt the pages.. they were satin soft.  I couldn't help but run my hand over pages as I read thru this book.. even the feel of it was outstanding.

In the beginning  I thought it was a little slow, and wondered if I had made a mistake picking it up to read, but still ..it maintained my interest. As I read on, thru the 700 (or so) pages, it slowly grew and became better and better the more I read.  Yes, indeed this was growing into a good book! 

I most liked that it began with the murder and then went back to tell the story of how Edward got to the point of where he was, and then in the final chapters tells you what happens "after" the murder.

The first sentence was a humdinger and will draw you in:

"After I murdered the red-haired man, I took myself out to Quinn's for an oyster supper."

What sort of person murders someone and then goes out to eat?!  I don't think I like this person!.. but .. as the story goes on you do grow to like him... or maybe it's that you understand him.

I rarely recommend a book but if you enjoy Mysteries, and indeed this book is much more filled with mysteries than it is with Murder, and you enjoy books that place you in "old England".. then I think you will enjoy this book . 

I certainly must have enjoyed it as the pages just flew by!  I liked the book and I liked the author for his very fine writing.. I have already sent for another book,The Glass of Time, by Michael Cox.

RIP Challenge. (book 5) (as good as this was it still didn't overtake my 2 most favorite reads since I began doing Carl's RIP challenge which are: The Thirteenth Tale and Drood)

7 Comments:

Blogger Debi said...

Wow Pat--this does sound incredibly good!!! Of course, the 700+ pages scares me. But I really need to get over that sillyness (I used to adore chunksters so I've no idea why they now intimidate me--guess there's just no explaining the workings of this tattered brain of mine. :P )

7:41 AM  
Blogger DesLily said...

hey Debi: I think part of that is that it takes us that much longer to be able to write a review! I began thinking I had to have one or two reviews a week..I put this on myself because I felt if I didn't then I wasn't really a "book blogger" but I am not a fast reader either and I think since last year I began to enjoy big books (if they are good).. more for my money, as they say lol

7:44 AM  
Blogger Kathleen said...

Wow Pat, you are on a roll with all of these "chunky" books! Glad you enjoyed this one. I still haven't read The Thirteenth Tale or Drood but I will!

2:36 PM  
Blogger Cath said...

Michael Cox died unexpectedly last year I think. I have one of his ghost story anthologies and had no idea until he died that he'd written any fiction himself. This sounds brilliant - I just checked the library catalogue and my town library has it, so will pop and get it this week sometime.

6:54 PM  
Blogger OldLady Of The Hills said...

Sounds like a really GOOD Book! Thanks for the review, Pat.

9:00 PM  
Blogger DesLily said...

Kathleen: ohhh they are too good to miss!

Cath: I am expecting the sequel any day now

Naomi: the photo's on your blog just get better and better!!

8:24 AM  
Blogger Kailana said...

I have always been interested in reading this book but haven't done so yet. I like the cover!

1:39 PM  

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