Spoiler Discussion (Apr 2019) Value Read - Winterman by Alex Walters

[Erunyauve]

I'm about half through, now, and enjoying the book quite a bit. I don't think I realised until yesterday that March was Gary's brother and Mary's cousin (I'm a little slow), but the author isn't giving everything away at once.

The Blitz and general British wartime homefront is one of my favourite history subjects, so the background of the story is fascinating.

[Erunyauve]

Finished - I did like the book, but the last third or so is rather slow - I had the feeling that the author didn't know how to finish the book. I was disappointed that we never found out what happened to Gary.

There were a number of surprises, characters turning out to be not what they seemed, and I liked that aspect. Usually, the main character 'knows' the good guys from the bad, but in this case, the DI is just as surprised as the reader. I don't mean that he is clueless - far from it - rather that characters have a realistic weight to them. Real people are complicated and contradictory; fictional characters tend to be more one-sided.

I would have liked a bit more follow-up with Pike - the kids being used in experiments is utterly horrifying and unexpected, and I felt that it deserved more attention and better development within the story, rather than given in a final tell-all.