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A review by jhbandcats
The Devil's Company by David Liss
3.0
I hate that feeling at the end of a book or movie where nothing has made sense.* Is it just me? Am I stupid or something? So, I confess I was completely confused by the ending - confused about who had done what and why, and I found it all very frustrating.
This time the story takes place against the backdrop of the East India Company and its control over the workers, the politicians, and even the people of England - after all, the customers can only buy what is offered. The Company works to make money, and the more money it makes, the richer England becomes. Therefore the politicians want to keep the East India Company happy and flourishing.
Into this comes a convoluted story of spies and polygamy and death and debt - a lot of debt. By the end a lot of people had tricked the hero, Benjamin Weaver, in a lot of different ways, and he felt wrung out. I ended this feeling wrung out as well but determined to read the fourth in the series.
[Update to review a week later: I keep thinking about the polygamy aspect. If the husband had died, there would have been a funeral. Well, did all the wives come to the same funeral and somehow not see each other, or were there multiple funerals so each wife got her own? The complications of polygamy and deceit were glossed over - disappointing.]
This gets as many as three stars because of the research behind the stories, the life that the author brings to the tale through his meticulous details.
*Full disclosure: I’m really tired. Maybe it really *is* just me and I just wasn’t thinking straight enough to make sense of a somewhat straightforward ending.
UPDATE: I just read some reviews and a lot of other people felt the same way I did. Whew. It wasn’t just me being stupid.
This time the story takes place against the backdrop of the East India Company and its control over the workers, the politicians, and even the people of England - after all, the customers can only buy what is offered. The Company works to make money, and the more money it makes, the richer England becomes. Therefore the politicians want to keep the East India Company happy and flourishing.
Into this comes a convoluted story of spies and polygamy and death and debt - a lot of debt. By the end a lot of people had tricked the hero, Benjamin Weaver, in a lot of different ways, and he felt wrung out. I ended this feeling wrung out as well but determined to read the fourth in the series.
[Update to review a week later: I keep thinking about the polygamy aspect. If the husband had died, there would have been a funeral. Well, did all the wives come to the same funeral and somehow not see each other, or were there multiple funerals so each wife got her own? The complications of polygamy and deceit were glossed over - disappointing.]
This gets as many as three stars because of the research behind the stories, the life that the author brings to the tale through his meticulous details.
*Full disclosure: I’m really tired. Maybe it really *is* just me and I just wasn’t thinking straight enough to make sense of a somewhat straightforward ending.
UPDATE: I just read some reviews and a lot of other people felt the same way I did. Whew. It wasn’t just me being stupid.