Official Review: The 11.05 Murders by Brian O'Hare

[irumbadianarose]

I like this book,starting with the book cover any one who loves thrillers mystrey would go in for it.the contradictions make one want to read more .Its perfect

[smc19]

Your comments make the tale sound tantalizing. I, too, prefer the absence of romance in a murder mystery; even though it often occurs, rarely is it handled well by the author. Tends to degenerate into something that does not support the plot or explain the environment of the tale and becomes excessive fluff. To keep the truth hidden until the very last page is an awesome task and done best by the type of twists and turns (even doubling back) that you describe. Should be a challenging path to follow. Thanks for your insight.

[Giselle abg]

I read this one and I agree about the development of Sergeant Stawart wasn’t so good. What is sad because she had potential to be a great charecter until the end of the book. About the romance, I admit that I liked it but I understand that it can bother some readers. I personally prefer the books of Agatha Christie, it is hard to find romance on her books.

[Nancy Kilkenny Barnhart]

This is a really clever thriller and a worthy sequel to Mr. O'Hare's previous book, The Doom Murders. The murder squad's story picks up after the assignment of a woman detective to their team, making an appropriate link with the violent rape case and following suicide which proves to have links with the current serial murders they are investigating. I would however take violent issue with the comments about this female detective character's behaviour not matching her attitude as established at the start of the book. It is perfectly clear that anyone coming from such an unfavourable environment as her previous job, with the complication that she is reviled as a "whistleblower" being added to endemic misogyny, would at first be defensive in the extreme and have trouble relating normally to a more normal working environment. I thought the book showed the gradual thawing process, with the mis-steps as previous experiences prompt unwarrantably prickly responses that are regretted but can't be called back, very well. While it can take some time to get over a learned resistance to accept approaches at face value, the situation is complicated by the lady detective's instinctive reservation about one character's motives which causes corresponding difficulties in dealing with other more genuine, if sometimes bigoted, reactions to her presence. Like in The Doom Murders, during the course of the book the character learns something about themselves and thaws to a more balanced approach to life. I am glad that the cheap tv-episode device of continuing a character's established grumpy or other "leitmotif" attitude throughout was not resorted to here, and that the character was shown to have healed in large measure from her traumatic previous job experience: this book stands alone as a great read, even if you have not previously read The Doom Murders and are unfamiliar with Detective Chief Inspector Sheehan's investigative team setup. I would so love to see this done on television: these books are just as good as the long-running Inspector Morse series!

Great review! I definitely want to read this book. Your review took it up another level. Thanks!