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In England, 1324, a dead body is found in a hole in an unrepaired road in Dartmouth on the same day that a half-burnt merchant ship is brought into the harbor. And a knight is asked by his master to go there to find a Frenchman who is fleeing the realm.

You can't judge a book by its cover, but you certainly can by its title. Death Ship of Dartmouth--book 21 in a 32-book medieval mystery series featuring two friends--should be enough to sum up how this book will turn out. This is B material, through and through. The unsatisfying plot is overly convoluted in its telling. Not that it is complex, just that the telling of it is rather meandering and heavy on exposition. And it is dialogue-heavy, while the narration is limited simply to what people are doing, saying, and thinking. Yes, thinking. It's that kind of novel.

Two redeeming features would be the characters and the history. Despite all its many flaws, the characters do have interesting personalities. As it is a multi-character, multi-subplot novel, nothing gets fleshed out very much, but we do come to an understanding of these people, even if the motions they go through are frustrating. The historical setting, too, is surprisingly well done. In fact, I'd say this is its single greatest strength. Not that it is all-encompassing, but it does put the reader firmly in the time and place. The specific geography of the port town not so much so, but certainly life in England in the early 14th century.

This book is not on the level of Patrick O'Brian regarding historical novels, it is not on the level of James Clavell regarding multi-character, multi-subplot writing, and it is not on the level of Martin Cruz Smith regarding dialogue, plot, and setting. If you don't have a strong interest in the Middle Ages, then best give this one a miss. However, if you do, and you're willing to put up with the imperfections of the fiction, then it's worth it. I'll probably give Michael Jecks series on the Hundred Years' War a try next, though, to see how that goes.

In 1346, during the Hundred Years' War, King Edward III of England made landfall in Normandy and led an army through the northern part of France, burning, killing, and inflicting terror--ultimately culminating in the Battle of Crecy, where he defeated the vastly outnumbering French army, before laying siege to Calais.

This book is extremely readable, no doubt about that. While there are endnotes for each chapter and a listing of its references at the back, this is not a pretentiously written book at all. The language is straightforward and clearly communicates the information in the vernacular of the layperson. It gives a brief overview of the history of the main players and of the conflict, as well as the preparations leading up to the landing. Then it's a day-by-day account of the progress of the English army and the response by the French. There are victories and defeats by both sides along the way, and we clearly understand what's at stake and the consequences of their actions.

If I were to pick some faults, one would have to be the endless listing of names, even though some are only minor players. It seems as if there was a record of the person being there 700 years ago, so they may as well include it. This made it difficult to understand or remember who was who, as few people stood out above others. Another minor annoyance was the insistence on the part of the writers to include the king's meal as the last paragraph to almost every day. Again, the record existed, so they included it, but a summary every two weeks mentioning the change in diet as their food stocks changed and depleted would've been more palatable.

I can't comment on the historical accuracy or any unusual opinions in the book because I know very little about the people, the time period, or the battle. However, I can recommend this book to anyone looking for a good description of the events and an enjoyable read. The only thing now would be to find a book written more from the French perspective to counter any bias and to get a better understanding of the local impact of that campaign.

Tintin, the Belgian reporter, and his friend Captain Haddock go on a search for lost treasure in the Caribbean.

This is the second volume of a two-part adventure which, along with another one, make up the basis for the Steven Spielberg movie. The movie was my introduction to The Adventures of Tintin, and this is my introduction to the comic books.

As a comic, it's cute. If I had read this when I was a kid, I would've been intrigued by it. While Spielberg's take on it changed the story a fair bit and was heavily influenced by Raiders of the Lost Ark, this is more of a bumbling adventure. There is more humor than I had expected, but it's targeted more towards pre-teen readers. It doesn't really have the broad appeal of the movie.

However, reading this as an adult is much like watching a kids' cartoon: the basic plot can be enjoyed, but the execution is tedious. The most glaring example is the overt dialogue constantly explaining what's going on.

I think it's an okay way to pass an hour if there is absolutely nothing else to do, but I could read a very rewarding novel in the time it takes to read the entire series. I'll give it 2.5 stars, dividing it as 2 stars for volume 11 and 3 stars for volume 12. I may read others in the series if I have an hour lying around.

A monk is asked to solve a series of murders in a remote 14th-century abbey amid a backdrop of high-level meetings between two opposing factions within the Catholic church.

This is my second time reading this novel. My first reading was well over 10 years ago, but that was before I discovered my recent interest in the Middle Ages. In addition to that, I also read a book earlier this summer specifically about monasteries and monastic living. With all of that under my belt, I decided to reread this book to see if I would still be impressed with it.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the mystery of the murders and of the library were much less intriguing the second time round. I think that's because there is little else to the novel other than that and the debates between the two opposing factions. A great novel, at its heart, still needs well-developed characters and an engaging narrative. This novel lacks both. The narrative is detailed and very quotable, but it is not particularly beautiful; and there are even times when future disasters get telegraphed to the reader in an overt attempt to build suspense. As well, the main characters are distant and unrelatable, merely there to go through the motions. I didn't really care for or empathize with either of them. This is by far the biggest weakness I noticed on rereading it, and I suspect Umberto Eco was a better essayist than he was a novelist.

However, having said that, I do remember being completely absorbed with the plot and with the labyrinth in the library when I first read it. And, after doing all my reading on the Middle Ages, I'm even more impressed with Eco's ability to recreate the time and the place so well--not just the physical atmosphere, but the attitudes as well--and to communicate it so effectively.

It's a novel, primarily, about the control of information. It touches on matters of greed, nationalism, humility, faith, class, and power as well. However, Eco's primary purpose seems to be about censorship regarding some of the more controversial ideas held in certain books in the library. It's an interesting discussion, but I can't help but wonder if Eco would still have the same views if he had written this novel in the post-truth world we are now living in.

Despite certain reservations, I still recommend it. It is a bit self-indulgent at times when he is showing off his knowledge, particularly about obscure writers and monastic orders, but there is definitely intrigue in the dual mysteries of the library and the murders, as well as the wonderful atmosphere and history.

Tintin, the Belgian reporter, buys a model ship on a whim in a street market, which sets off a search for ancient treasure.

This is the first volume of a two-part adventure which, along with another one, make up the basis for the Steven Spielberg movie. The movie was my introduction to The Adventures of Tintin, and this is my introduction to the comic books.

As a comic, it's cute. If I had read this when I was a kid, I would've been intrigued by it. While Spielberg's take on it changed the story a fair bit and was heavily influenced by Raiders of the Lost Ark, this is more of a bumbling adventure. There is more humor than I had expected, but it's targeted more towards pre-teen readers. It doesn't really have the broad appeal of the movie.

However, reading this as an adult is much like watching a kids' cartoon: the basic plot can be enjoyed, but the execution is tedious. The most glaring example is the overt dialogue constantly explaining what's going on.

I think it's an okay way to pass an hour if there is absolutely nothing else to do, but I could read a very rewarding novel in the time it takes to read the entire series. I'll give it 2.5 stars, dividing it as 2 stars for volume 11 and 3 stars for volume 12. I may read others in the series if I have an hour lying around.

A Polish Jew, who is a reporter for Pravda, is asked by competing members of the Soviet secret police to carry out a few espionage-related operations in the lead-up to World War II.

Alan Furst is a master of atmosphere. Few authors, regardless of genre, have his sense of time and place. From the buildings to the clothes to the attitudes, he nails it all. It is the single greatest aspect of his writing that everyone comments on, and with good reason. Reading one of his earlier works is a master class in setting and certainly worth the cover price alone.

The plot of this novel, however, is rather ho-hum. It can mostly be summed up this way: a guy does some things. That is a bit harsh, because we do learn a lot about espionage during that time period, but it's not far off the truth. Furst, in his early works, didn't really have much idea how to tie his characters' actions together. It really isn't random what the reporter is doing in this story, but you'd never know that from the way Furst writes it. He gets it right in later books, but it's still an oversight in this one. The last one-third of the novel is better, but you sort of have to go through the first two-thirds wondering how it all relates. It just doesn't have that feeling of connection that other thriller writers automatically imbue their novels with.

As the second novel in a series, it's nice to see some of the crossover characters from his first one. It isn't a sequel at all, just a shared world with characters who happen to be on the same journey. Sometimes these secondary characters even outshine the main ones, but that's part of the fun of reading his books.

For people new to reading Furst, I wouldn't really recommend this one to start with. It is easily his most quotable one, and the invasion of Poland is really well done, but it's just too different from his others. I'd rate it 3 1/3 stars--3 for the first two-thirds, and 4 for the last one-third. He found his stride by book four, The World at Night, so that's where I'd start. Then read, in any order, through to book nine, The Foreign Correspondent. After that you can continue on or else to back to book one. The quality of book 12, Mission to Paris, and onward is pretty atrocious, though, so I wouldn't recommend those.