Reviews for Talking to strange men

The average rating for Talking to strange men based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-09-12 00:00:00 Tyler Garlock I read this because I was in a mood for some good classic mystery novel. Unfortunately, it was neither of those things. First of all, I should've picked something American, as I find all mid-sized English towns dreary, and can hardly ever muster any enthusiasm for books taking place in mid-sized English towns. This wasn't a crime novel per se, more of a story of a pathetic, depressed man whose wife left him for some scoundrel and who becomes obsessed with decoding messages of what he think is a dangerous spy/drug ring but in reality is just a bunch of public school twats. What follows is a chain of coincidences, resulting in a total tragedy of errors and some paedophilia, as well as countless loose ends that beg to be tied up somehow. It's a weird, and ultimately unsatisfying book, because the climax, while definitely climactic, does not involve any main characters, only a couple of despicable secondary ones we never cared for in the first place.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-08-26 00:00:00 Colby Greco I considered one star, but this is Ruth Rendell, one of my bygone favorite authors...whose books occupy book shelves in my homes. But then, were my actual favorites the Barbara Vine variety? I don't think I own this one. This was a library loan in this case because I thought it would be fun to get the Rendell twist on Soviet spy craft just following after the Daniel Silva book I read. No. There are codes, English school boy spy games and many other oddities with a full cast of wacky and depressed characters and out of control situations that do not please and cannot be understood. I was without my decoding ring and could not make out what this book was about.