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Book Review of The Intelligencer

The Intelligencer
reviewed on + 5 more book reviews


I could almost write the same review here that I just wrote for "Interred With Their Bones". If you feel like you want to read this, you may as well grab the other, too, and read them together.

Unfortunately, both have been compared to Da Vinci Code and I would *strongly* disagree with that comparison. I loved the Da Vinci Code and found both of these books wanting.

The problem with this book is it had a great concept (and we hear far too little about Marlowe, especially in comparison with Shakespeare!) but was so busy trying to be the great mystery history novella, that it ran around chasing its tail far more than it needed to.

Maybe I would have done better reading it cover to cover, but I found that by the time I got back in the swing of whichever timeline I was reading, it was time to jump to the other timeline. I'd spend long enough in each time that when I was switched over to the other, it would take me a bit to remember where I was with that storyline last I left it.

If you really want to read this book, I would recommend reading it cover to cover (or as close as possible) AND suspending any knowledge you may have of the travel world (as in reality of traveling from one time zone, country, etc. to the next). The book would have probably gotten another star out of me if it hadn't tried to convince me that all of this hustle was supposed to happen in a few short days.

Good concept, but it took too much to get into it and I had to set aside too much reality to even try to swallow this fiction. (I can buy a lot, but unbelievable timing is not one of them!)