A QUIET FLAME: COMPLETE AGREEMENT

In the recent edition of the excellent Mystery Readers Journal entitled Historical Mysteries, Part 1 Mike Ripley mentioned that he rated The Athenian Murders by Jose Carlos Somoza as quite brilliant. He had been a judge for the first time for the CWA 2002 Daggers and The Athenian Murders had been a unanimous winner.

But I really could not understand Somoza's book and found it dull and very disappointing.

We all have our own opinions.

So I was very pleased to see Mike's review of A Quiet Flame on Euro Crime with this introduction.

In the world of crime writing there are three prestigious awards made each year to honour the best crime novel, the best 'thriller' and the best historical mystery, which these days means one set before about 1960. Philip Kerr's new novel, A Quiet Flame (Quercus, £14.99), qualifies in every category and might just pull off a spectacular literary treble by winning all three awards. It certainly deserves to: it is that good.

Spot on Mike, I wish I had written that and my own review of this book is also on Euro Crime at:

http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/reviews/A_Quiet_Flame.html