**Disclaimer: I have received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**
Who was Luanne Woodrow? Only one man at the glamorous ski resort knew the answer. His name was Hans Aldik. He was a world-famous writer. And he was following this hauntingly beautiful, strangely reticent girl for a single purpose. She was the only surviving member of the Woodrow family. All the others had been murdered in one of the most notorious crimes of the century. Luanne alone held the key to the Woodrow mystery.
This book by Anne Edwards was initially published in 1968 but, in my opinion, it has not aged well unfortunately and feels very dated indeed. Now, I do not usually mind a good old nostalgic experience and I am very fond of historical novels (which this is not), therefore "dated" does not scare me.
However, I found it very hard to finish this book after a very slow start, a slow middle part and an unbelievable ending. Overall, the story was quite convoluted and the narrative contained too many descriptive passages for my liking. I like a bit of action and dialogue myself, which did not happen until well in the book.
I really wanted to like this book and make an effort. After all, I had been drawn to it by the cover and the interesting blurb. Alas, I just could not stomach the love story between Luanne and Hans which was totally unbelievable in my opinion, i.e. the characters were madly in love with each other after spending two days together in the Swiss ski resort!
Similarly, Luanne had spent the last ten years cooped up in a retirement home with no interaction with the outside world, but that did not prevent her from playing socialites at the resort. Nothing in her character or demeanour seemed to reflect this long isolation. I don't know, these two aspects of the story did not compute with me.
Other unbelievable events in the story did not sit well with me (the return trip to London in five hours, for instance) and just distracted me from the main plot and its resolution, which also left me cold.
The Bibliovore's verdict ⋆
Could I recommend this book to anyone? Unfortunately not if they have similar tastes as mine and like believable characters and plot.
However, I found it very hard to finish this book after a very slow start, a slow middle part and an unbelievable ending. Overall, the story was quite convoluted and the narrative contained too many descriptive passages for my liking. I like a bit of action and dialogue myself, which did not happen until well in the book.
I really wanted to like this book and make an effort. After all, I had been drawn to it by the cover and the interesting blurb. Alas, I just could not stomach the love story between Luanne and Hans which was totally unbelievable in my opinion, i.e. the characters were madly in love with each other after spending two days together in the Swiss ski resort!
Similarly, Luanne had spent the last ten years cooped up in a retirement home with no interaction with the outside world, but that did not prevent her from playing socialites at the resort. Nothing in her character or demeanour seemed to reflect this long isolation. I don't know, these two aspects of the story did not compute with me.
Other unbelievable events in the story did not sit well with me (the return trip to London in five hours, for instance) and just distracted me from the main plot and its resolution, which also left me cold.
The Bibliovore's verdict ⋆
Could I recommend this book to anyone? Unfortunately not if they have similar tastes as mine and like believable characters and plot.
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