No comments about Retorno del profesor de baile, El (Maxi) (Spanish Edition).

No comments about El camino blanco (Detective Charlie Parker) (Spanish Edition).

No comments about Crimen y castigo (Clasicos Inolvidables) (Spanish Edition).

5 comments about After the Funeral (The Christie Collection) (Spanish Edition).

1. My first Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express was a terrible success for me. I enjoyed it immensely. And for that, I high-handedly believed that it was just luck - a one-hit wonder, so to speak.
   
   (I find that keeping a healthy dose of pessimism is sometimes advisable so as to make my enjoyment of the same author's other work more rewarding.)
   
   And really, After the Funeral is a mystery that latches onto you a few paragraphs in from the first page. Latches on and refuses to let go.
   
   The sudden death of the head of the family, Richard Abernethie, has forced the rest of the brood to come together in the hopes of receiving good news of being left a huge chunk of the inheritance. It was only later after the reading of the will that one of the more cuckoo characters, Cora Lansquenet, makes a slip of the tongue and exclaims, "But he was murdered, wasn't he?"
   
   One more turn of events and then the story begins to unfold in an unhurried, but unmistakably steady pace. The arrival of the estimable Hercule Poirot certainly upped the stakes, making it clear to the reader that Christie has taken the gloves off. Now the hunt begins.
   
   The bevy of characters and their respective something-is-not-quite-right veneer keeps the reader on tenterhooks as to who might have done the deed. Snatches of well-placed hints about an object or an unrelenting memory from a past conversation all have the indubitable signature of this renowned crime-detective author.
   
   This is certainly a novel that proves the adage, You think you know...but you really have no idea...
   
   When Poirot was in the stage of giving his `speech' revealing who the culprit was, I still thought that I may have a handle as to who it could be...and so I was complacent.
   
   But the revelation was such that I literally had to straighten up. I was like, "Eh, wha--? Huh?"
   
   After that, I had not choice but to (again!) bow at this wicked talent of Christie.
   
   If you were able to guess who the murderer was and how the deed was done, my hat's off to you.
   
   For me, though, this short story was definitely effective in keeping my eye on this author. Impressed. And also despairing at my slow wits when it comes to 'solving crime' ",)



2. The book was as promised. It arrived on time, in good condition and I am completely satisfied with my purchase.



3. 
   I've always liked this one. Christie does a quality job of fooling the reader when the answer is pretty straight forward. Most mystery readers, myself included, fall into the habit of over thinking the story and trying to apply traditional conventions to these stories and when the answer is well-covered by superfluous details and I get fooled, well I'll admit, I get a kick out of it. The answer to this one is right up front, but Christie does a great job of confusing the issue with a number of suspects and a solid plot.



4. I had probably read "After the Funeral" before, but I often use whodunits as bedtime escape fiction reading and forget the details not long after finishing them. So I was happy to pay a few bucks to read this one on my Kindle.
   
   I agree with the reviewers who think this is neither the best nor the worst of the Poirot novels. I enjoyed the way the British class system played into the plot, and appreciated Christie's way with the different characters in the extended family at the heart of the book.
   
   My Kindle edition of "After the Funeral" came with extra content. I didn't find this mentioned on the product description page, so it was a pleasant surprise.
   
   The first bonus item - an "E-book extra" is an annotated list of all of Christie's Poirot novels and stories. I found it very helpful.
   
   The other extra was an essay by Charles Osborne which was adapted, somewhat awkwardly I thought, from his book The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie: A Biographical Companion to the Works of Agatha Christie.
   
   The book displays nicely on the Kindle; I no longer take this for granted after looking at a poorly formatted nonfiction book that displayed much more white space than words and being grateful I'd only acquired the sample and hadn't paid for the thing.



5. Agatha Christie was a genius, unmatched in the cozy mystery genre. In this book, one "murder" is committed, then a second, then another person is poisoned and a fourth is "coshed" on the head. Hercule Poirot arrives on the scene quite late in the book and solves the mystery by observing, listening, and waiting for people to come to him with stories and explanations. Not only is the mystery intricate, with many clues and red herrings, her style of writing is mesmerizing -- extensive vocabulary, bits of philosophy, charming settings and social interactions, cozy and comfortable. No wonder she has sold over 2 billion books and continues to sell thirty years after her death. I have read most of her books at least once, some several times, and I think this is one of her best.

2 comments about Shutter Island (Spanish Edition) (Bolsillo).

1. I have a hard time finishing books. My problem is that I fall asleep. I wish i could read more, so usually look for short story collections.
   This book took me 2 days to read.
   This is so well written, exciting, fast moving, puzzling, shocking, gripping, suspenseful..... I really could not put this one down, and hardly blinked while I read it.
   Dennis LeHane is my new favorite author. He also wrote Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River, which have since been made into excellent movies.



2. 
   Dennis Lehane is a master storyteller and writer. Shutter Island is an incredible book. It's cleverly plotted, well written and quickly paced. Although this book does not feature the team of Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, it doesn't suffer the least bit. Make sure you have time to read the final 50 pages uninterrupted. The ending is stunning. In addition to being amazed at the turn of events, I was awed by Lehane's writing. It's easy to see why Lehane has a legion of fans (this is the fifth book I've read of his). If you haven't read Lehane, I don't know what you're waiting for.

No comments about Saber perder (Spanish Edition).

No comments about Seis problemas para don Isidro Parodi (BIBLIOTECA BORGES) (Biblioteca De Autor / Author Library) (Spanish Edition).

2 comments about Son de Almendra / Dancing to Almendra (Spanish Edition).

1. Aclaro que es la primera vez que leo una novela de Mayra Montero.
   
   Esta bien escrita y documentada pero, me llegan mas sus escritos como columnista, en los que muy seguido nos sorprende con su incisiva vision de la realidad en que vive: la actualidad puertorriquena.
   
   Varias veces puse el libro a un lado mientras iniciaba otros que si terminaba de un tiron o abandonaba por completo.
   
   Y es que eso de las historias paralelas, la de Joaquin y la de Fantina, que se bifurcan en lugar de encontrarse, no es precisamente lo que anticipaba.
   
   Una excelente columna op-ed, que sobre la reciente crisis gubernamental en Puerto Rico Montero publicara en el The New York Times - que para eso, repito, la autora esta entre los mejores, si no es la mejor -, confirmo que la version en ingles de "Son de Almendra" se titulara "Dancing to Almendra", tal como lo indica la linea introductoria de Amazon.
   
   Con respecto al titulo, este no nos dice mucho sobre el argumento de una obra que es un thriller bien trazado y ambientado en otra epoca. Igual que en el original en espanol, el titulo en ingles y la cubierta sugieren muy poco de lo que se trata la obra.
   
   Ese empeno - o sera una obsesion - en titular obras literarias con titulos de canciones es algo que todavia no logro entender. Y cuando las traduzcan a otros idiomas, que?
   
   (Sugiero que los editores le cambien el titulo en futuras reimpresiones. Ya hay precedentes con exito, como la novela "Los crimenes de Oxford", del argentino Guillermo Martinez, que en su primera edicion fue titulada "Crimenes imperceptibles".)
   
   La novela abre una ventana a los tumultuosos momentos finales de la mafia que domino los negocios del turismo y entretenimiento en la Cuba de los cincuenta.
   
   Ojala y sean pocos quienes no confundan la obra con un manual de pasos de algun baile tipico caribeno! Porque no lo es.



2. "Son de almendra", la mas reciente aventura que nos entrega la escritora cubano-puertorriquena Mayra Montero, es una gran novela. Como ya nos tiene acostumbrados Montero, "Son de almendra" tiene una trama rica, que se va desarrollando ritmicamente en el ambiente caribeno (visto ya en "Tu, la oscuridad", "Del rojo de tu sombra", "La trenza de la hermosa luna" y "El capitan de los dormidos", entre otros). Tiene la novela el elemento de periodismo (el protagonista es periodista) y en este sentido le otorga mucha pasion a la escritura, ya que Montero se inicio como periodista y no deja de sentir gran afecto por esta profesion.
   
   Los personajes estan perfectamente trabajados y delineados, demostrando la grandeza de la escritora. Tambien merece mencion su intensa labor de investigacion y su minuciosa descripcion de los tiempos pasados. Detras de cada obra de Montero hay meses o anos de arduo estudio para llevar un trabajo serio y de calidad.
   
   Sin embargo, comparando con sus pasadas creaciones, volvemos a encontrar elementos que se estan volviendo repetitivos y trillados. No me convence el punto de vista masculino con extremada atencion en detalles ridiculos, las casualidades sobrenaturales con repercusiones importantes, dos historias o dos puntos de vista corriendo paralelos y simultaneamente a traves de libro, etc. Titular su novela de forma similar a alguna cancion caribena (como en "La ultima noche que pase contigo" y "Vana ilusion") o centrarse en el tema de la musica (como en "Purpura profundo" y "Como un mensajero tuyo") parecio traerle cierta musicalidad a sus pasados libros, pero en este da la impresion de ser una estrategia traida a la fuerza, sin lograr el exito de sus anteriores intentos.
   
   "Son de almendra" es una lectura obligada para todo aquel que disfrute de la novela caribena, quienes (igual que yo) admiren la consistencia del trabajo de Mayra Montero, aquellos que sientan nostalgia por la Cuba de la epoca de Batista, o cualquiera que quiera gozar de un "thriller" en espanol, entendiendo que este trabajo es bueno, pero pudo haber sido mejor.

No comments about LA PIRAMIDE (Serie Wallander) (Spanish Edition).

1 comments about El Rumor de los Muertos (Spanish Edition).

1. Hola, no tengo nada contra el libro, pero si contra el precio. En la web de BUBOK,editora de este ebook, venden este titulo en PDF a 1,99 y encima te regalan la version en Epub. Mi pregunta es, ¿Por que hay un aumento de casi 5 de una plataforma a otra. De todos es sabido que si compro el PDF a 1.99 aparte de poder leerlo de forma nativa en el Kindle, tambien lo puedo convertir a Mobi con el conversor gratuito de Amazon o de manera mas "alternativa" pasando el Epub a Mobi con el programa Calibre.
   No tiene sentido que en una plataforma tenga un precio y en otro no. Se que Amazon sube el precio por los impuestos, pero la diferencia sigue siendo infefior a 4,5.
   
   Saludos