[These comments are taken from a mailing list discussion and as such contain spoilers…]

[on the characters]

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for yonks and was expecting to love it and I wasn’t disappointed. I was surprised that Mace had a bigger role than Munch as I hadn’t heard about him and having read the book I’m surprised to find that Mace doesn’t come back again straight away in the next book. If I hadn’t known that this was Munch’s series before reading the book then I would have expected it to be Mace’s series.

Most of the characterisations in the book were great, I loved both Munch and Mace. The various mechanics, Ruby and Digger were the other characters who made an impression on me. Some of the characters with less redeeming characteristics seemed a bit thin and stereotyped. In particular I thought Potts wasn’t fleshed out enough. I got a vague idea that Mace didn’t get on with him but he didn’t make enough of a mark on me that the resolution seemed believable.

[on the setting]

The setting felt vaguely out of place to me but this has been resolved by reading the discussion. I had absolutely no idea that this was set in the 70s. In the bit about bicentennial coasters in the bar I thought that either the landlord had stocked up enough coasters to last 20 odd years or my recall of dates in American history was rather wonky; the latter was quite feasible and the former was hilarious!

Knowing that the book is in the 70s makes it feel less out of joint and explains the lack of worries about AIDS, condoms, dirty needles etc. which was festering in the back of my head as a little incongruous as I read. As well as why a suspect could mistake a photocopier for a lie detector which bugged me a bit too.

The physical setting didn’t envelope the book as it does in some others but I got a good feel of a big city where Munch had just about never seen countryside and I liked the little details of settings like the filled in canals around Digger’s house.

[on the plot]

I didn’t feel that this book was a great mystery, it wasn’t really about the plot and was far more character based. The Bellona Creek Butcher murders were interesting but seemed to fizzle out a bit to me the mystery of who killed Flower George didn’t really grab me as I knew it wasn’t Munch; I was far more concerned with how Munch was coping really. The resolution was good from Munch’s point of view but Potts didn’t really work as a killer for me.

[on the pacing, scenes]

The pacing seemed fine to me, I didn’t feel that there were any dull lulls or filler (and the pacing would have been better if I hadn’t had to put the book down every ten minutes but I can’t blame the author for that!) The only thing in the book that really didn’t work for me now I’ve got the time of the book right was the unmasking of the killer but I may just have not been paying enough attention to those bits of the story in my worries about Munch. The bits I find most memorable in the book were little details like Munch stealing syringes from the hospital and then chucking them away, the kid on the street helping Digger out, and Munch using brains rather than brawn to take engines to pieces.

[on this being a first book]

As I said at the top it wasn’t clear to me from reading this book what the “concept for the series” was, if I hadn’t already known that Munch was to star then I would have expected Mace but probably because having the detective as the central character is what I’m used to. Whilst I like Mace a lot I think Munch is going to make a great central character and I’m really looking forward to the next book.

This book didn’t feel like a first book to me, if I had to pick on something as not seeming fully polished it would be that some of the mystery elements could have been stronger without destroying the great character parts of the book, and that the time period wasn’t clear enough to me. Mostly this book was great stuff and I’d read the next one even if it wasn’t for a discussion and I doubt I’ll stop until the series is over.