Reviews for Hotel Tiberias : A Tale of Two Grandfathers

The average rating for Hotel Tiberias : A Tale of Two Grandfathers based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-04-17 00:00:00 Carlt Adams This is a spectacular historical novel. Anyone who has read or seen the British version of "House of Cards" will recognize a similarly fast-paced interaction of multiple plots, with important people doing important things and little people feeling the impact of those momentous events on their more plebeian lives. Dobbs' control of this material is superb, reflecting his own experience in the Halls of Parliament over several decades. He must also have known some of those not-so-famous since many of the most poignant scenes involve people who are either fictional or so minor that history has not had much to say about them. But Churchill knew them, and about them, and he knew they were the reason Britain needed to survive, Of course, the ultimate message is 'Thank God Winston got to be PM' no matter what dirty tricks were used to accomplish that result. The world would have been a horrid place but for his almost singular ability to resist Hitler long enough to get FDR into the fight.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-05-03 00:00:00 Patrick Cornell This is a wonderful premise for a book and it should have been totally engrossing. However, there were several things that detracted from my enjoyment. As ever, the book was far too long at 690 pages. I seem to find this more and more now, that authors are rambling on, and their publishers and agents, to whom they always give their undying thanks, are too scared to tell them to cut 300 pages. The other main issue is that the central storyline in the blurb is described as the relationship between Churchill and Burgess. However, there are actually lots of relationships between the six to eight main protagonists, and that was too many for the story. I did learn a lot about the immediate prelude to war, which history has sort of skipped over. I really felt this book could have been so much better if it focused on the relationship between Churchill and Burgess, with the secondary storyline focusing on Churchill and Chamberlain's hate / hate relationship.