The Telling Error: Culver Valley Crime, Book 9

Absolutely fantastic! The latest Waterhouse-Zailer mystery is Sophie Hannah's best one yet, in my opinion, and I've read them all. Couldn't guess the killer but loved every minute of the journey. Sophie Hannah is truly in the top tier of mystery writers today, this one was such a fun ride from start to finish. Fans of her work will love this one.

A good story from the Waterhouse/Zailer series. There were a couple of loose ends in the story, but it didn't detract from the main story very much.

Not her best, but a fun read as can be expected of Sophie Hannah.

I always love the books in this series. The plots are always so twisted I never have a hope of working out where they're going, and the writing is always so fantastic I have no trouble reading on to find out where they end up.When's the next one due? I want it.

She writes a strange tale

Couldn't get into it - never finished it. Have read and loved everything by the author and this was the first I havent enjoyed.

love this author

I loved it...truly one I couldn't put down. Sophie Hannah is a great writer..

A pure pleasure. I have loved the plot, the details, the way Sophie Hannah gives each of her characters so many contracdictory sides, just like we have. A true delight, as usual, but a oittle bit more this time. One of the best books in the series of the Culver Valley.

I've counted myself as a Sophie Hannah fan for some time now - since her pre-crime writer days (her poetry and non-Culver Valley novels are excellent, by the way), and have eagerly awaited each new book ever since. Some of her more recent novels have met with rather mixed reviews - I love her writing style so much that I've enjoyed them all, but I'd say "The Telling Error" is her best for some time.As a crime writer Sophie specialises in strange, apparently inexplicable situations which are gradually unravelled; the labyrinthine plotting can at times be demanding on the reader ("The Other Half Lives" springs to mind - a book I loved, but which also gave me a headache at times trying to work out who knew what about who). "The Telling Error" is complex, but not so much as to interfere with the reader's enjoyment.Her writing can also be very funny, especially where the brilliantly sarcastic DI Proust is concerned - his lines often make me laugh out loud (his very first line about the "Simon Waterhouse tribute programme" made me snort in a very unseemly manner) and he must be great fun to write, even though he doesn't feature that much this time round. I like Charlie and Simon too, both believably complex characters whose unusual relationship is, however, not centre stage in this latest instalment. Characterisation is, as always, excellent, with even minor characters having a depth and realism which is absent from a lot of crime fiction. Hannah also has some very spot-on observations about the internet keyboard warriors who take to Twitter and elsewhere to express their general bile at anything and everything (as one character accurately says, "They want to carry on hating - it's their hobby.")Also, the title is great. Not sure though whether to make anything of the fact that the book includes characters called both Sophie and Hannah!Anyway, in short, another first class outing for Zailer and Waterhouse. Already looking forward to the next....

This is the third Sophie Hannah book I've read in the Culver Valley series and even though there is always a weird twist with the characters/stories this one left me feeling quite bored towards the end. The main problem for me were the chapters showing the diatribe going back and forth with certain characters, and although it was integral to the backbone of the story, left me feeling like skipping those pages which in the end I actually did. Not one I'd recommend and now less inclined to try another by this author.

good plot, interesting writing, but it's impossible to relate to the main character and therefore it's hard to emphatize with her. the culprit could have been anyone, despite the intelligent writing.

It should come as no surprise that this, the 9th book in the Spilling/Culver Valley CID series, sticks to a well-established formula. As always, the narrative revolves around a bizarre or seemingly impossible crime which is related through alternating first and third person chapters. As always, the first person narrator is an intelligent but slightly flaky woman in middle youth whose connection to the case comes to seem progressively less coincidental as the story progresses. As always, there's a secondary mystery which is only tangentially connected to the case. And, as always, there's a bit of background from the supporting characters and a few incursions into the mental landscape of the main investigating officers. Essentially, if you buy this, you'll be getting a Sophie Hannah novel; whether you enjoy it or not will depend on whether or not your the type of person who enjoys Sophie Hannah novels.About two years ago, I read an interview with Hannah and was drawn to download her first book, Little Face. Immediately, I realised that this was an author I was going to enjoy. After that, I worked through all of the novels in uninterrupted chronological order. In all, the books have a lot to commend them. Hannah has a parallel career as a poet and this is made apparent through some strong descriptive writing. The narratives are never less than compelling and the author had a very clear understand of how to maintain a reader's interest by teasingly drip-feeding information before shifting to another perspective entirely.Unfortunately, after the series peaked with the masterful The Other Half Lives, Hannah has been churning out more of the same. She's found a formula that works, and she's sticking to it. It shouldn't matter when the results are as good as The Telling Error, but eventually the law of diminishing returns will start to apply. Already, we're seeing evidence in the way she treats her characters. In the first books, DI Proust was a wonderfully rounded character, a truly nuanced office-bound supervising officer. By the later books, he's become an identikit horrible boss. In the same way, DC Waterhouse started out as compellingly damaged but brilliant. However, having set out the cause of his problems in Kind Of Cruel, Hannah's let him settle into being a slightly aloof chap with a Moby Dick fixation. The reasons why are unclear.In spite of the negative comments above, I enjoyed the book. Sophie Hannah has undoubtedly mastered her craft, it's just a pity she seems content not to stretch herself anymore. Perhaps the mooted Poirot reimagining will give her a chance to reinvigorate her muse.Etienne Hanratty, Don't Carp, Marley Tiffin