Night Ferry

Unrealistic character and stilted dialogue. A woman's story written by a man does not feel right/true to me. I felt no compassion or interest in anyone, and didn't have any desire to complete any more than seven pages. I was disappointed, as my sister suggested this book to me.

This is the second book I read of this much-recommended author. Sadly, in his zeal to churn out books quickly, he has given basic research the go-by. If he intended to use Indian characters, the least he could have done was to check which names are used in which religion and in which states! The characters are stated as being Sikhs following Sikhism - a minority religion prevalent in Punjab, a state in the North West of India. They do not use first names like Kala, to my knowledge, nor indeed a surname like "Barba" (in fact that is not even an Indian surname!)!!! And what takes the cake is a character named "Sohan Banerjee" described as an "educated Sikh"! Even street level research (asking an average Indian passerby!) would have revealed that Banerjee is a Bengali surname used by Hindu brahmins in West Bengal, a state in the Eastern part of India. If the author were too lazy to do his research, he could have made the characters Hindu and avoided glaring errors, instead of feigning great expertise on a small community and making a fool of himself in the process. That is, assuming, he did not use names like Ismail Singh or Mohammed Patel! As to the pace of the book and the storyline, the less said, the better. All characters seem to be engaged in a headless chicken act with a berserk text struggling to keep a storyline. How such "writers" find publishers is beyond my ken! And how publishers do such shoddy editing / checking is a further shock. All in all, highly avoidable!

I'm enjoying this audiobook detective mystery. The setting is between London and Amsterdam. The detective is a Sikh woman and it's funny to see how she interacts with her brothers, family and especially her mother. Her estranged best friend comes to her for help and after a murder happens, detective Alisha goes of on a convoluted path with the aid of her old mentor and the help of her boyfriend to uncover a human trafficking/smuggling operation. Very enjoyable characters and story.

loved this book

I'm on a Michael Robotham jag. I LOVE his books!