The Snowdonia Killings

I can’t finish this book, the writing is pedestrian, the use of language drives me nuts as the author obviously uses words which sound good but he doesn’t actually understand, there are contradictions in the text and I need to take a big red pen to the editing. The verified purchases that give such good reviews must be friend he persuaded to write on his behalf. Do not bother, really do not bother, there are some brilliant modern detective writers out there, this author is NOT one of them!

No idea how some reviews have given this 4 or 5 stars. Proof reading non-existent. Grammatical errors, spelling errors, and continuity dire with character ages changing from page to page. Unbelievable that one of the main characters is a hardened alcoholic, yet nobody has noticed. Intended to give up with story at chapter 3 as that bad, but kept going to see if any improvements.

Not my usual theme at all. I'm usually history novels or autobiography but thought I'd give this a go because it was based so near home and fancied a change. Couldn't put it down. Loved the twists, thought the characters were realistic and human. Looking forward to the next book. xxx

A good story, however, if I wanted geography and history lessons on Wales I would have bought the appropriate books. I would have given more stars but there are paragraphs through the whole book on Wales then the history of certain places and people from Wales. You lose track occasionally on the story so please leave the history and geography lessons out.

Call me harsh but....I usually judge how accomplished an author is within the first 2 pages of a book, paying attention to accurate/ mis- use of language or ability to use a thesaurus. So I was disappointed (considering the write up the DI Ruth series has received) that in the first chapter the geographical blunder. SE15 and SE19 are not the same place or even adjacent. As a work of fiction I could forgive Peckham being placed in the wrong postcode but it can't be in two places at once!Aside from this little niggle, the novel has good pace and intriguing characters.