I had meant to read this for some time as several people I know recommended it. I was happy when it was chosen as this month’s reading group book. But, disappointingly, it’s a thumbs down from me.

I found roughly the first third quite boring. There are many characters introduced and they all seem very two-dimensional and indistinguishable from one another. The style of the novel reminds me of Dan Brown, but without being quite as sensational and with far less description. I found the solution to the central mystery quite ridiculous. Another aspect I didn’t enjoy was the product placement sprinkled all over the place.

The only part of this book I really enjoyed was the confrontation between the hero and the villain. That was pretty exciting and would be a fantastic on screen. I haven’t seen either of the films that have been made of the book but I’m sure they could be very good indeed; there’s a reasonably engaging plot once it picks up. However, it falls short as a book because there’s nothing there to make the reader sympathise with any of the characters because he/she just doesn’t get to know them. There’s more written about what people eat than about what they are really like.

I don’t know how much of this is down to translation but the style of the writing is very dull and wooden. The book tells you a lot about what happened and what people said but not how they said it or what they felt. Perhaps it’s because SL was a journalist so was used to writing in that style? Whatever the reason, this book just didn’t make its mark on me.