I didn't read Power's Gold Bug Variations so I don't know if he writes like this all the time but Wandering Soul was tiring to read. I began by reading sentences, one after the other (like we're taught). Ouch. Then, I resorted to reading only the simple looking sentences because the paragraph long ones were hurting my mind. I thought Powers was writing for a creative writing class and trying to be really creative (when he didn't have to be or when it didn't seem appropriate). I've taken a writing class or two but, if he did, he must have had a teacher who encouraged him to go to extremes and he forgot to turn it off (except for the simpler sentences that I fed on while trying to get through his Operation).

So, sorry Richard. No points for needlessly complex sentences of sleepy length. The story might have been interesting but you couldn't hold my attention long enough (or completely enough, given that I was resorting to selective reading) that I could understand where the story was going. I think I gave up after a hundred pages. Fellow reviewers, please don't write that if I'd only hung on to page 300 I'd have seen a masterfully developed plot. The hook should have been set long before then.

One wonders what JK Rowling had to get off her chest to compose such an insipid waste of a read. I was bored early on but struggled to page 90 (can I get a medal?) in the hope of things improving. They never did. Boring characters with lots of common flaws that I couldn't care less about. Life in an imaginary English town or two written with limited imagination and no awareness of what it takes to hold the reader's attention (JK?). If Voldemort had appeared I would have cheered him on (Down with (these particular) muggles!).

I was looking for a decent mystery but struggled to get through this one

The author, Manuiel Munoz, is good at crafting sentences but the story was, to me, boring. On page 177 he writes, in part, speaking thru the "Director" about the tilt of European movies toward the "vulgarity of everyday life." Munoz's book is very much about that vulgarity. It is a paean to pettiness. No comic relief. None of the characters had a sense of humor. Lots of hope and fear.

People who are into movies and their making might enjoy the second half of the book. Munoz takes us through an imaginary history of Hitchcock's making of Psycho. Music plays a significant role in this story and there are numerous references to singers and songs of the 1950s (the time period of the story).

I like a lot of other Scandanavian police procedural writers (Stieg Larrson, Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell) but Camilla Lackberg lacks too much to be in that group. Her romantic subplots are distracting, uninteresting and, like much of the rest of the book, simplistic. She cannot be accused of complexity or nuance in her writing. Perhaps she could consider writing for a different age group, one that would benefit from simple, direct dialogue and plots. Ice Princess really irritated me and I gave up after trying it for 188 pages (out of about 390). I don't usually quit on a book but this one made me not want to continue. I read the last 20 pages to see how she'd wrap it up. More of same. I'd not likely read another by Lackberg unless someone told me she had had an awakening and totally changed her style and was finally writing really interesting stories.

I read Peter James' Dead Simple based on glowing reviews of this author. This, after months of Scandenavian police procedurals which were so much better written. PJ should reconsider his writing career. His character development was almost non-existent, and I was bored with the story from the get go. I could not relate to any of the characters and the story dragged for over 200 pages. Don't know why I continued to read other than to see how/whether one of the main characters survived. Would not recommend this book. On a scale where Stieg Larsson is a 10 and Jo Nesbo an 8.5, Peter James is maybe a 3.