Charlie Lovett

I admit that to some extent I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't say it was a well-written book. I found the writing clumsy, and I found the plot confusing and difficult to follow. One of the worst examples of the poor writing was when Peter entered Skykes's cottage and found the disaster. Even though he was looking at what was described as a total ransack of the place, it took him a good long while to figure out something was wrong. I just don't have patience for that kind of writing. Given the setting for the story -- academia, book collectors, great literature -- it was a disappointment, but as a beach-type read, it was OK. The problem may have been that I wasn't at the beach.… (mehr)

(2022) VERY GOOD! This book had me from page 1. After almost dying from a hired hit, Patton is drawn into an effort to stop a neo-Nazi who is after a stash of gold in the Alps put there by Heinrich Himmler at the end of WWII. An implausible plot, but so well crafted I couldn't stop until the end.GOODREADS: When librarian Patton Harcourt comes under sniper fire in her rural North Carolina home, she is thrown together with professional assassin Nemo and into a web of international deceit.On the run from two German killers, Patton and Nemo discover a seventy-five-year-old Enigma message which leads them to Bletchley Park in England and a code breaker named Ruthie Drinkwater, an old flame of Patton's. Unable to complete the job of code breaking at Bletchley, the trio leaves and are pursued by the Germans, who support a white-supremacist agenda. The Germans work for Ingrid Weiss, whose grandfather was a prot g of Henrich Himmler and who is following in his footsteps.When Patton, Nemo, and Ruthie break the code, they discover a message claiming that Himmler mastered alchemy, and Patton and Nemo are incredulous but determined to stop Ingrid Weiss from obtaining limitless wealth to promote her agenda. In need of a book owned by Weiss, they travel to Munich. When they break into her home to steal the book, they find themselves in a deadly situation.Using the Enigma message, the group travels to Prague and then the Italian Alps. What they find when they arrive puts them in the crosshairs of Weiss and the Nazis, and leads to a high-stakes confrontation that will require allies from their pasts to ensure their survival.… (mehr)

The idea of this book sounded so great and I wanted to like it so much...but last night I just had to give it up.

It's hard to describe what I'm feeling but this is a book written by a guy...for guys. The main character is a guy, that doesn't bug me of course. The problem is that it's just not meant to be engaging to female sensibilities. Again, nothing I'm really able to describe...just a feeling that turns me off. When the main character and his buddies had their book geek out night, I was reminded of my brother and all his weird gaming friends from high school: never showered, greasy hair, nasty complexions from an abundance of nasty food, never brushed their teeth, grossing me out discussing girls that would never give them a second look...all that yucky geeky guy stuff. I couldn't handle it. Had to let it go. This author also wrote a Jane Austen story. I wanted to read it so much...not sure I can now. Ew.… (mehr)