First off, let me say the title of this Novel confused me. The Eynhallow Enmity. I assumed Eynhallow was a proper name, but I confess to looking up th...moreFirst off, let me say the title of this Novel confused me. The Eynhallow Enmity. I assumed Eynhallow was a proper name, but I confess to looking up the meaning of enmity. It was not the only time I tangled with words in this work. The author, Robert Forrester, is a writer living in the United Kingdom. The old saw about “us” and “them” being separated by a common language holds some level of truth, but that was not the basis for my few bits of confusion. This story, for the most part, takes place in the northern regions of the United Kingdom. While about half of my dubious ancestors hail from Scotland’s Lewis Island, I, alas, am somewhat less than a born and bred Scot. Therefore, some of the dialect confused me a bit, but that’s okay. It confused the hero, Inspector Anderson, too. Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate well-written dialect as much as I do well-written dialogue, and Mister Forrester succeeds at both. I find his characters to be handled well also. They are finely drawn, without intruding on the reader’s imagination, and they are not so numerous as to confuse the reader’s experience. The author does not beat you over the head with excess description, but allows you to discover more about the characters as the work progresses. Just like life.
I found the plot and the storyline enjoyable. In these days when “shock and awe” seems to be more important in both motion pictures and novels than content and credibility, Mister Forrester does something unusual. He tells a good story. He is not wordy, complicated, or preachy. He is direct, he is uncluttered, and he speaks to Theatre of the Mind.
The Eynhallow Enmity by Robert Forrester is a good blend of characters and plot, feels real, and is a more than satisfying read. I liked it. A lot.
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