Title: Evocative foundation on historical London, but little else
Product review: I have been trying to read this book, on and off, for nearly ten years. The time could have been put to better use.Ackroyd does an admirable job of evoking post-plague London in both sense-detail and in diction, style, and vagarities of spelling. But his modern London, and the detective who gives his name to the title, are flat, expressionless, and - worse yet - ring false. The detective portion of the novel is especially ineffective, and the police procedures depicted seem shallow and poorly researched. Above all else, the quest for evil, if there was one, was transparent to this reader.The chapters set in London-past are what drives the two stars in this review. Alas, better depictions of the historical city and its people can be found in any of Neil Gaiman's 'Sandman' graphic novels.
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