I enjoyed the beginning of this book when events were centred around the village and its occupants. Following the event on the bus the story pretty much ended: the events surrounding Fidelma once she left the village were disjointed and uninteresting and did nothing to move the story along. I skipped quite a bit of the middle of the book and read the end, which wrapped things up a little too neatly.

On the whole it was quite well written, although the changes between past and present tense - sometimes more than once in the same paragraph - were distracting and unnecessary. I was left feeling a little disappointed by what I'd read as the premise was really quite good, but the content, for me, was a bit of a miss. ( )

I was spellbound by this book, even though it has some flaws. Let me talk about the good part first. I loved the descriptions of the the people in the little Irish town where the Part 1. of this novel is set. it shows how ordinary life was before Vlad enters the scene, and how he changes the fabric of the place. The story was compelling and told at a decent pace.

Wat was lacking was that you only see what Fidelma feels by her actions. Especially after the attack you only read about het physical recovery, but there is not much about her emotional reaction. There is very little description of what goes through her mind, her fears, anger and doubts. To me it is all a very outward description and it makes the protagonist look less sympathetic. Especially in the Second part of the book. The reader never really finds out what moved Fidelma to go to The Hague and confront Vlad. We just know that she does it.
All in all I enjoyed the book, despite its flaw.s
( )

"The hunted, the haunted"

"We don't know others. They are an enigma. We can't know them, especially those we are most intimate with, because habit blurs us and hope blinds us to the truth." page239

A war criminal from Sarajevo is hiding out in Ireland until he gets caught. The story is more about the woman he was involved with before his capture and the repercussions the revelation of his horrors have on her life. A scattered novel about war, trauma, denial, accountability -- or something like that... as the pieces never seemed cohesive enough for me, the parts weren't glued together enough. So I will stop talking about this book now... I don't want to be like the guy in the bar at the end of this book... ( )

audiobook fiction - character driven
having some trouble getting into this, although I am impressed by the narrator's ([a:Juliet Stevenson|202818|Juliet Stevenson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1518138041p2/202818.jpg]) great skill in providing the various voices, including the male characters--she also has a lovely Irish accent.

I listened to about 4 hours worth (over half the book), but wasn't compelled to continue. The main story seems to be the woman's using the war criminal's sexual "healing" and "other" services to get pregnant (after suffering 2 miscarriages with her husband), but there are also lots of side stories that seemingly go nowhere (or at least seem to wander off for hours before arriving back at a point contingent to the story). The writing/storytelling is good but I think it would benefit significantly from some editing/direction.
It's also possible that I would fare better with a more easily skimmable print version of the book, or that I'm just not in the right mood for this type of story, but I am giving this a pass for now. ( )

This is a terrible book with ludicrous characters BUT it's terrible in a really good way, and the ludicrous characters are never boring. It's as if master storyteller O'Brien were a master jazz pianist sitting down blindfolded in front of a deeply out of tune piano--it still sounds terrific. She riffs on anything she pleases, writing on and on about inconsequential trivia about characters who have no point being in this story. It feels like O'Brien just let any skinny bit of thought that came into her head make its way to the page and then she worked it and made it beautiful. She is so talented--she is even channeling Virginia Woolf here and there, I would say--just compare the chapter "On the Veranda" to early chapters in The Voyage Out. The lovely stark beginning which gives this book its title is the best part, though--the novel never reaches the solemn promise of those little red chairs. ( )