Official Review: The Four Red Roses by Francis Carr
Posted: 27 Jan 2021, 09:50
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Four Red Roses" by Francis Carr.]
John Martin didn't expect anyone phoning him at 2.30 a.m. to be calling with good news, but he never expected it to be about his wife's death in a ghastly road accident. Hence, John has to travel to Aubervet, France, to identify his wife's corpse and bring her remains back to England.
In Aubervet, John could sense that the town's citizens were all afraid of something or some people. His late wife's laptop was missing, and it seemed like the authorities were too eager to conclude the formalities for him to leave the town. After a trainee priest secretly handed John a flash drive and told him it was from his wife, John began to suspect that there was more to the reported accident than he knew. What information does the flash drive contain? And what is really going on in Aubervet? The answers to these questions will change John's life and those of the people of the small town forever!
The Four Red Roses by Francis Carr is a 207-page crime thriller with a strong theme of retribution. The author uses the third-person perspective to provide an intriguing narration that will surely thrill anyone who reads this novel. The book also highlights some of the ills in our society, like extortion, corruption, and occultism. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and wish to share my experience through this review.
What I enjoyed the most about this book is the author's impeccable attention to detail. In many instances, I wondered how a character pulled something off and immediately got an explanation for it. It was as if the author knew what I was thinking. In some novels, the author bores readers with procedural descriptions, so I am happy to report that it is not so in this book. The descriptions in this novel are easy to follow and understand.
Furthermore, I enjoyed the book's characterization. Though I wished for more backstories of the main characters, I must commend the author for only letting me know as much as I needed to know. The author didn't dwell on unnecessary descriptions and characters. This move helped to keep the book concise and fast-paced. There wasn't a dull moment from start to finish and any cause for confusion in the author's narration. The author also maintained a balanced number of characters throughout the novel and only introduced a new one where it was necessary. I couldn't believe how much I feared for the protagonist's safety and had to take short breaks to cool off from his nerve-wracking escapades.
I also like how the book ended without leaving any unanswered questions. However, the route the author took to provide the novel's satisfying end is too straightforward for me. I expected some bottlenecks and challenges or twists that would lead to a more explosive climax. Nevertheless, this issue didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book, but I am sure that my reading experience would have been more exciting if there were unpredictable twists and turns.
To conclude, I am awarding The Four Red Roses 4 out of 4 stars. Considering how much I enjoyed reading the novel and its satisfying end, I couldn't deduct a star just for the excusable negative I raised above. The book seems professionally edited and only has a few errors. Therefore, I am happy to recommend it to lovers of fictionalized crime stories with resourceful characters. However, readers who are disturbed by descriptions of people dying should beware of such contents in the book. Otherwise, I wish you a fascinating experience reading this one.
******
The Four Red Roses
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
John Martin didn't expect anyone phoning him at 2.30 a.m. to be calling with good news, but he never expected it to be about his wife's death in a ghastly road accident. Hence, John has to travel to Aubervet, France, to identify his wife's corpse and bring her remains back to England.
In Aubervet, John could sense that the town's citizens were all afraid of something or some people. His late wife's laptop was missing, and it seemed like the authorities were too eager to conclude the formalities for him to leave the town. After a trainee priest secretly handed John a flash drive and told him it was from his wife, John began to suspect that there was more to the reported accident than he knew. What information does the flash drive contain? And what is really going on in Aubervet? The answers to these questions will change John's life and those of the people of the small town forever!
The Four Red Roses by Francis Carr is a 207-page crime thriller with a strong theme of retribution. The author uses the third-person perspective to provide an intriguing narration that will surely thrill anyone who reads this novel. The book also highlights some of the ills in our society, like extortion, corruption, and occultism. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and wish to share my experience through this review.
What I enjoyed the most about this book is the author's impeccable attention to detail. In many instances, I wondered how a character pulled something off and immediately got an explanation for it. It was as if the author knew what I was thinking. In some novels, the author bores readers with procedural descriptions, so I am happy to report that it is not so in this book. The descriptions in this novel are easy to follow and understand.
Furthermore, I enjoyed the book's characterization. Though I wished for more backstories of the main characters, I must commend the author for only letting me know as much as I needed to know. The author didn't dwell on unnecessary descriptions and characters. This move helped to keep the book concise and fast-paced. There wasn't a dull moment from start to finish and any cause for confusion in the author's narration. The author also maintained a balanced number of characters throughout the novel and only introduced a new one where it was necessary. I couldn't believe how much I feared for the protagonist's safety and had to take short breaks to cool off from his nerve-wracking escapades.
I also like how the book ended without leaving any unanswered questions. However, the route the author took to provide the novel's satisfying end is too straightforward for me. I expected some bottlenecks and challenges or twists that would lead to a more explosive climax. Nevertheless, this issue didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book, but I am sure that my reading experience would have been more exciting if there were unpredictable twists and turns.
To conclude, I am awarding The Four Red Roses 4 out of 4 stars. Considering how much I enjoyed reading the novel and its satisfying end, I couldn't deduct a star just for the excusable negative I raised above. The book seems professionally edited and only has a few errors. Therefore, I am happy to recommend it to lovers of fictionalized crime stories with resourceful characters. However, readers who are disturbed by descriptions of people dying should beware of such contents in the book. Otherwise, I wish you a fascinating experience reading this one.
******
The Four Red Roses
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
