Customer Reviews
Never ending Foolery - By: D. O. Bailey, 17 Aug 2008 
I thought I was going to love this book, I did for about 40 pages then it turns into some mad keystone cop film, running into rooms, shooting, up & down stairs- madness! I didn't have a clue where anyone was in the building & everyone seemed so forgiving when Svenson etc came charging into whatever room they were in- why didn't they just kill them!
Chang was a good character but as for Miss Temple - I reallly didn't like her & was praying for her demise.
I struggle to the end, read it in about 26 sittings for book club, the others to get to the end ( there still asleep now). It had a great beginning & would have been a feat to keep it up alll the way through.
Over-rated piffle - By: Jl Adcock, 10 Aug 2008 After reading 145 pages of this book I gave up the ghost with it. Despite the over-blown reviews & period feel to the cover & graphics, it's a reallly bad read, where little happens - & both the descriptions & narrative are too tedious to bother with much beyond the first 2 chapters. You can't help feel this is alll being made up by the author as they go along - & frankly I lost interest in what happens before chapter 3. Cleverly marketed - but best avoided.
Great, but only for a certain audience - By: A reader, 04 Aug 2008 
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but it was quite a strange read (with some sex thrown in). You should buy this book if you enjoy the journey as much as the finale, & if you like reading:
Lucifer Box novels, Wilkie Collins, pseudo-Victoriana, magical realism (like Gabriel Garcia Marquez & Isabelle Allende) & tongue-in-cheek novels
Don't buy this book if you like:
Dan Brown, John Grisham & other books that are written like film scripts with lots of chase scenes. You would hate this book!
I hope this helps you decide if this is the book for you!
I personallly loved it & immediately ordered the sequel.
Wish I hadn't bothered - By: Ailsa M. Hollinshead, 04 Aug 2008 
We chose this for our book club because one member was currently reading it & was saying how compulsive it was even though it was odd. We alll glanced at the book & given the reviews alll over the cover we chose it for the coming month. Yes, there is a compulsion about it but only in certain places. The book could have been written in no more than 300 pages as so much was irrelevant & there were endless, long-winded descriptions. The opening chapter, with its derivative nature (Eyes Wide Shut) & a reallly irritating heroine, was enough to make me dread having to complete it. The mock authenticity of the writing style was irritating as was the poor use of grammar. The premise was fascinating, which is probably what kept me going (that & the book club) but the ending was awful & cynicallly geared to a follow up when none is merited. It took up 8 days of my holiday & I would normallly read a book that length in about 4 days. And as for erotic - well maybe two smalll passages but the rest seems like it's been written by someone who isn't comfortable with sex -and who knows who the reviewer on the cover was who compared it to de Sade - clearly never read any of his stuff! Mind you, it would make a reallly good film if they did it Indiana Jones style!
Roller-coaster ride (that maybe lasts a bit too long) - By: Didier, 10 Jul 2008 
Truly an amazing book! I had it with me when I was walking the Cotswold Way & it made for a perfect companion... walking alll day in a picture-postcard part of England & then in the evenings relaxing with the amazing adventures of Miss Temple, Cardinal Chang & Doctor Svenson!
The only minor quip I have is that it perhaps could have been even better if it were a hundred pages or so less long. Although I usuallly don't have a problem to grant any book - especiallly one as captivating as this one - a willing suspension of disbelief towards the end I did begin to feel that this one was straining at the limits. I mean, how many bullits can anyone dodge in the course of a few days? How many beatings & pummelings before anyone succumbs? To me the cumulative effect of the dozens of 'miraculous escapes out of tight corners' of Miss Temple, Cardinal Chang & Doctor Svenson was that the villains of the piece started to seem more & more clumsy, however fearsome they appeared at first.
However, alll in alll I should stress that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience & will definitely buy 'The Dark Volume' to learn alll about the further adventures of this unlikely but very likeable trio of adventurers.
