Official Review: The 11.05 Murders by Brian O'Hare

[katiesquilts]

I'm currently reading this book now and I have to admit, I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. I'm not finding it at all to be what I expected when I read the summary. Granted, I'm only within 33% of the book, so hopefully it starts to pick up. But at the moment, I feel they are concentrating more on the police aspect than the actual acts. I have yet to pick up on where the murders happen at 11:05 when committed. I love a good suspense novel, but I'm not seeing any suspense in it so far.

Magic, did you ever finish the novel? I'd love to hear if your opinion changed since the last time you posted! Did it live up to your expectations?

[Dunmileo fadipe]

This book sounds interesting. I love murder investigations. Will start reading today , thanks everyone

[katiesquilts]

This book sounds interesting. I love murder investigations. Will start reading today , thanks everyone

Great! When you finish reading, please let me know what you thought of it! I hope you like it enough to give it 4 out of 4 stars.

[Manang Muyang]

Another book for my want-to-read list. I love suspense and action, and a little romance on the side won't hurt.

Thank you katiesquilts for this good review. I believe I will see/read more of you as we seem to both like this genre.

[Antares]

The 11:05 murder review by Antares Walrath

The 11:05 murders is second book in the Sheehan mystery series written by Brian O'Hare. The book is 311 pages long, with 57 chapters. The novel is a mystery/horror/thriller/ police procedure. I chose to review this book not knowing that it was the second in the series, with that being said, I don't believe that you must read them in order, they stand alone quite well.  Mr. O'Hare  manages to weave a unique and interesting story, with several fully developed characters, despite the fact that this book seems to lack professional editing. I truly appreciate and enjoyed the story and would gladly pick up another novel by Mr O'Hare.

The story starts out with the newest recruit to the Belfast 'b' district major crime unit Denise Stewart arriving for her first day on the job. Quickly the unit catches their first
case. The slain man has had his throat slit and, his penis shoved down his throat. Adding more intrigue to the case the sene is completely free of all forensics expect what the antagonist intends for the unit to find.  Intertwined with Denise's training and detective work the unit discovers 3 more intended victims and a mysterious suicide that seems to be at the heart of these murders.

The 'B' unit's story is told by multiple narrators giving the reader a chance to see other unit members through different eyes,  leading several of the characters to have different story arcs, and for the reader to see unique character motivations. Mr O'Hare continues to enhance the experience by giving each character their own speaking style and slang. Allowing each main character not only their own moment in the spotlight but, to be truly interesting.

My only real complaint with the novel comes from what I believe is a lack of professional editing. While I can assure you that I found no spelling or obvious grammar errors many of the other  self published  pitfalls were present. Had there been a good editor to interject I feel like the chapters would be arranged better, some of the word choices would be tweaked, and some obvious clues to the 'bad guy' would have been removed. The chapters in this book were used as a vehicle to abruptly change characters, where there could be a page break, and for otherwise 'willy nilly' reasons. I found myself making my own chapters in my head as apposed to using the chapters as guides to determine breaks in reading, which was quite frustrating.  My next source of frustration came from word choice. I would constantly stop reading to picture the author at a desk with twelve, thick, leather bound dictionaries and thesaurus. While often author's will use less common words that are perfect for the occasion, the majority of these words in this novel didn't fit in the role they were given. Finally, I was one thousand percent sure that I knew who the bad guy was by the second time we met him. Furthermore every clue given throughout the book just further drove the point home. I feel like a second, fresh set of eyes could easily have served remove some of these clues to make the book more mystery and less predictable.

Overall I am rating this book 2 out of 4 stars. The story was fun to read and, even exciting, although highly predictable. The characters were so fully developed they truly came to life. With this book it's very much about the journey, not the destination. I would love to recommend this book, I just struggled with what genre I would recommend it for, I don't see a mystery/thriller fan enjoying it.

[Manang Muyang]

Oops, Antares seems unhappy with the book. Nevertheless, it stays in my bookshelf. I'd like to give it a chance.

[Antares]

Oops, Antares seems unhappy with the book. Nevertheless, it stays in my bookshelf. I'd like to give it a chance.

I can't say that I was unhappy with the book. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I just feel like there was some things people should be forewarned about before reading. Especially with all the glowing reviews I've seen.

[Manang Muyang]

Point well taken, Antares. I hope I can give my own views about the book soon.

[Antares]

Point well taken, Antares. I hope I can give my own views about the book soon.

I would highly suggest that you try it! The story is very fun and exciting. The characters are great.

[katiesquilts]

Oops, Antares seems unhappy with the book. Nevertheless, it stays in my bookshelf. I'd like to give it a chance.

I can't say that I was unhappy with the book. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I just feel like there was some things people should be forewarned about before reading. Especially with all the glowing reviews I've seen.

It definitely seems like most of your frustration came from the author's writing style, and not the plot or characters.
I also had a lot of problem with punctuation in the novel, but then I realized that the author was not American. British English and American English have different ways of ending sentences, such as whether to put the period inside or outside of quotation marks. Once I realized that, I understood that they were not mistakes, but just a different way of writing than I was used to. Although I agree that it's a bit frustrating and eye-catching for American readers.

[Antares]

I completely agree about the punctuation Katie. I have read other Irish books with the same 'issues' however mostly it was the chapter placement and word choice that would draw me out of the story. That and the lack of mystery were my only issues.

[Vivian Paschal]

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!

Thank you for posting your own review of the novel! I always love to hear others' opinions.
I agree that Denise warming up to her new team was a gradual and well-written process, but what I had the most issue with was the last chapter or so of the novel. Obviously I can't spell it out more clearly without spoiling the ending, but I felt like 90% of her "thawing" process was well-paced, and the last 10% only took a few pages to finish.

I agree that it would make for an interesting television show!

I totally understand what you mean by the last ten percent took only a few pages to finish. The last stage of her adaption was all too fast. But, I totally loved the novel; had me guessing all the way. And as smart as I thought I was, I kicked myself too for seeing the obvious things but not taking them too seriously.

[katiesquilts]

Thank you for posting your own review of the novel! I always love to hear others' opinions.
I agree that Denise warming up to her new team was a gradual and well-written process, but what I had the most issue with was the last chapter or so of the novel. Obviously I can't spell it out more clearly without spoiling the ending, but I felt like 90% of her "thawing" process was well-paced, and the last 10% only took a few pages to finish.

I agree that it would make for an interesting television show!

I totally understand what you mean by the last ten percent took only a few pages to finish. The last stage of her adaption was all too fast. But, I totally loved the novel; had me guessing all the way. And as smart as I thought I was, I kicked myself too for seeing the obvious things but not taking them too seriously.

My thoughts exactly... I suppose we both should have trusted our instincts!

[Sarah Ann OHare]

I have read The 11.05 Murders and most of the forum comments. I believe that those who question the speed with which Denise 'thawed' have misunderstood the type of person she was originally. She was already a good-natured young woman who was temporily embittered by her treatment at her last posting, not a dyed-in-the-wool, prickly feminist. Therefore, once she found herself in an environmetn that allowed her to trust her colleagues, the hard edge left her and allowed her natural personality to emerge. There was no huge conversion that took place at breakneck speed and there was nothing in her subsequent behaviours that could be deemed out of character.

Also, to those who 'spotted' the killer right away, I would suggest tha there is a certain amount of self-congratulation here that might be unjustified. Of course the writer drew attention from the beginning (several times, in fact) that somthing was 'off' about one of the principal characters. Immediately loads of readers started thinking, 'Oh, he is obviously the killer.' You would need rather more than that in a court of law. The astute readers were not fooled by this and tried to identify the killer by analytical reasoning. They are the ones who wer kept guessing until the end.

Finally, the 'rushed' ending was a headlong race against time. I bellive the author was flying headlong through this section to ratch up the suspense. Obviously it
didn't work for everyone. It did work for me.

[katiesquilts]

I have read The 11.05 Murders and most of the forum comments. I believe that those who question the speed with which Denise 'thawed' have misunderstood the type of person she was originally. She was already a good-natured young woman who was temporily embittered by her treatment at her last posting, not a dyed-in-the-wool, prickly feminist. Therefore, once she found herself in an environmetn that allowed her to trust her colleagues, the hard edge left her and allowed her natural personality to emerge. There was no huge conversion that took place at breakneck speed and there was nothing in her subsequent behaviours that could be deemed out of character.

Also, to those who 'spotted' the killer right away, I would suggest tha there is a certain amount of self-congratulation here that might be unjustified. Of course the writer drew attention from the beginning (several times, in fact) that somthing was 'off' about one of the principal characters. Immediately loads of readers started thinking, 'Oh, he is obviously the killer.' You would need rather more than that in a court of law. The astute readers were not fooled by this and tried to identify the killer by analytical reasoning. They are the ones who wer kept guessing until the end.

Finally, the 'rushed' ending was a headlong race against time. I bellive the author was flying headlong through this section to ratch up the suspense. Obviously it
didn't work for everyone. It did work for me.

Sarah Ann, I can see where you're coming from! In the murder mystery genre, there are always going to be readers who say they saw the killer coming "from a mile away." Sometimes they might be exaggerating, but only they know if they decided who the killer and remained unwavering on their opinion throughout the entire novel.

I'll still agree to disagree on Denise's "dethawing" statement. Without going into details (because that would be a major spoiler!) about the last few chapters in the book, I have to say that what she went through would be quite traumatizing for anyone, and especially for someone like her who has been hurt before, although in a different way perhaps. Looking back on her past and the relationships she worked so hard to create, I just think that she would be a bit more shocked in real life, and that her actions at the very end of the book were a bit uncharacteristic. That, or the timing was off. I personally did not feel as if the author had to push so hard for a happy ending.