Intriguing Book with Varied Pace
590136
Had this book on my to read list for a long time.  Never got particularly motivated to read it.  But, as the movie was coming out, I got curious.  In parts, the author didn't go into enough detail and in other places it dragged on with detail.  But, overall an intriguing book.
2308226
The beginning of the book was a little slow-going for me due to some of the vocabulary being over my head, and a personal disinterest in politics. However, once the "plan" was established between lead characters Gabe Mapel and Kaila Eckman I became interested in discovering just how the case would pan out.

There were a bunch of grammatical errors throughout the book, as well as some female characters that I didn't gel with too much, but I am always a sucker for books that contain a love interest with a history (especially if they end up together in the end).

Also, the added element of Gabe having questionable mental health piqued my psychological interest. Abe Lincoln makes frequent appearances throughout the novel almost as an alternative personality (a darker, malicious personality) to pair with Gabe's apprehension about going through with everything that happens in regards to the Tibb's case.

Overall, not a bad book. If you can make it through the slow parts, the drama is addicting in it's own unique and outlandish way.
3241868
Different perspective, Interesting but a little slow at times..
3107745
A book filled with surprises. Came off with a slow start, but soon picked up pace. The book is lacking some depth in its characters, but the plot compensates with its many surprising twists and turns. All through its about connecting the dots and some connections are very unexpected. Enjoyable reading.
2456440
Interesting book, slow in parts but very well written. The voice can be a little annoying at times with all the references and long sentences, but that's also a great deal of this book's charm and what makes it unique. The end was fairly predictable by the middle of the book, but there were still a few twists and turns. Part of what I liked about this book was the main character's denial about what was going on around her; she was very relatable in that way, even though the reader could see what she didn't see about the adults in her life.
3462342
Although there are a few parts that seem to drag on, the book tells and original and engaging story, makes you want to keep reading to find out what happens, and has a very clever ending.
3832450
Interesting but a little slow in places, but it kept me reading
2699998
It took me a few pages to like reading the book.  Once past the first few pages or so, the characters became very interesting and the book became very interesting.
3546043
After a slow start, I found myself enjoying this story more and more  the second half is certainly better than the first. Much better pacing  and one particular sequence moves very well indeed. I will say no more about this, because the sequence in question is one of the surprises of the second half of the story.  I think the spiritual themes could have been handled more subtly  sometimes the style was too overtly pedagogical I found myself wondering if the author was trying to convert her readers to a New Age religion of some sort.  If so I remain unconverted, but I would nevertheless agree with the underlying argument that there are more mysteries in this world than traditional religions acknowledge.  This book will thus be of particular interest to those who enjoy exploring less conventional spiritualities. Well written, although the author would benefit from employing some tricks of the trade (e.g. being more selective with detail).
4789154
Interesting story that kept me reading, and I enjoyed most of the characters.  Storyline struck me as a coming-of-age tale for a middle aged woman instead of a teenager which was a nice change of pace for me.  Minus a star because the pacing was off, while most of the book was slow the last few chapters seemed like a race to wrapped up every angle as fast and clean as possible, and the ending was a bit too tidy which played into that.  Still worth it for the kindle price and will consider this author again.
272443
It took a while to get into this book and several times I had to reread passages as it is so complicated. The way it is written as a dialogue to the main character 's recently dead wife seems very strange at first but actually makes sense at the end. It is not the kind of book that you can put down and pick up a few days later as you have to keep the train of thought going and relate each event to the previous ones and the background. The implications may seem far fetched to some people but stranger things have happened so it doesn't seem all that improbable. This book takes effort but is intriguing and worth it in the long run.
75135
This is an unusual novel by an interesting lady. The Pale Surface of Things is set in a place most Americans know little about: the island of Crete in the Eastern Mediterranean. The author weaves together a variety of plots and characters, too long to recount briefly here, in an interesting story that touches on elements of family, loyalty, nationality, honesty, and the dangers of false expectations.

The story begins with two main characters, both Americans. One is a Greek Orthodox priest who's returned to his ancestral home to be the village priest, the other an archaeological student who's working on a dig of Minoan artifacts, and at the same time is supposed to marry what amounts to the boss's daughter, and take his place as the head of a clothing empire back in America. When the prospective bridegroom is late for his wedding, she throws a tantrum, he flees, and the fun begins. He winds up in the priest's village, and various other characters mix into the story.

The author has an interesting writing style in terms of the way the narrative is constructed. The book is separated into chapters, and each one follows a different main or subsidiary character for 5 or 10 pages. This gives it the feel of one of those disaster novels from thirty years ago, something Arthur Haley would have written, or perhaps Irving Wallace. There's nothing disastrous about the events here, of course, other than the bridegroom's disappointment, but the feel of the book is similar. If it's a bit old-fashioned, it works.

I enjoyed this book a great deal, and would recommend it.
4931491
This was an interesting book written from two points of view: the child who was stolen and the changeling who replaced him. The changeling struggles with the fear that he will be discovered throughout his entire life, even into adulthood. The boy who was taken is slowly raised in the changeling ways, waiting for the day when he, too, will replace a child. However, as the modern world encroaches on the wilderness, the continued existence of the changelings is threatened.

I found the book to be unique, though a bit tedious in a few places. His use of music as a stimulant for memory is quite interesting. The way that Mr. Donohue weaves the lives of the two boys together is what really makes the book unique.
1303123
A Book That Leaves you thinking - has to be read slowly!
4308316
interesting plot, a fun but different kind of read
4016751
This is an intriguing novel about the murder of Dora, a young eighteen year old woman found dead in a park. The contents of her stomach at the time of death contained a half digested fig. She was also a patient of Dr. Freud. You see, her murder happened in Vienna, Austria in 1910.
The case is assigned to a nameless inspector, who is trying to investigate this homicide according to certain principles set forth in a book of criminalistics written at the turn of the century. It is an intellectual and cerebral approach to a criminal investigation. It is also an interesting look at a turn of the century police procedural.

Meanwhile, Dora's murder has captured the imagination of the inspector's independent, Hungarian born wife, Erzebet, who, unbeknownst to her husband, has begun her own parallel investigation based upon intuition and her own cultural proclivities. She is joined in her endeavor by her friend, a governess who is at loose ends while her employer is away.

During the investigation, this elegantly written novel paints an atmospheric, three dimensional portrait of turn of the century Vienna, lush with details about everyday life. It is this part of the book that is the strongest and the most interesting, as it is highly evocative of a place and time gone by. The mystery itself, however, ends up not being much of a mystery, after all. In the final analysis, the promise of this highly ambitious novel remains unfulfilled, as the author simply bit off more than she could chew. The novel whets the appetite but, ultimately, fails to sate it.
1707626
This is an interesting book that is written with much more focus on the characters than many other mystery novels.

There are three characters with different interests, attitudes, and emotions.  The book explores their mindsets very effectively.  The tone is dark, as is one of the main characters in particular, whose exploration I found the most interesting.  The book makes good use of switches in setting and time to explore the story and keep the reader in suspense.

This isn't a typical mystery novel in moralizing the plot, which I found refreshing.  As the book switches gears from discussing the characters to resolving the mystery, the book becomes more of a thriller, but this book does not follow the typical flow of such stories with a pleasing resolution.  The reader is left asking themselves about the choices the characters took, not from a morality standpoint so much as a causation one.

The book is not a roller coaster ride, but rather simply an interesting puzzle that comes together in the end, and not unrealistically.

Good book.