Even though I enjoyed the story, particularly given the serial killer twist and the obsession mania, this book of the Shardlake series isn't as well written as the other 3. The author seemed to be in a hurry to finish it, so I can't begin to describe the number of repetitions, the too many unnecessary adverbs and the rushed dialogues full of "he said, she said, he asked, she asked". But nothing was more disquieting than the word "quiet" in all its infinite variations. I stopped counting how many times "quiet" and "quietly" were used throughout the book, sometimes twice or even thrice in the same sentence. In any case, such is my fascination with this interesting and unique series that I will keep reading it. I just hope the next books return to the standard set by the first ones.

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Dull, boring, not credible but with fascinating cultural insights .

It was dull and boring, downright not credible. A man would never act as this author describes him. He would have discarded his fantasy long before Michael did and made his life with his new bride work. And the tug of war between the two characters went on for far too long, their giving and taking deeply boring after just a few scenes. If I give it a 3 stars, it's only due to the very interisting cultural aspects that left me fascinated. I loved the setting and, having grown up in Nigeria myself, it was like getting back to my roots, except that I learned a whole lot more in the process.

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I like the characters and the historical setting, both of which are well portrayed by the author, but the theme of a monastery mystery based on a book is getting a little stale for me. I was enthralled with Umberto Eco's The name of the Rose, the first book in my knowledge to tie murders within monastery walls with the reading of a particular book. Then C.J. Samson has given a whole new interpretation to the Apocalypse in her Revelation as applied to a series of gruesome murders. That's why, after the first few chapters of The Monastery Murders, I knew exactly where the author was going and how the crimes would be solved. And that's never a good thing when it comes to murder mysteries 🙁

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