Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I’m 75 years old. I’ve been reading since I was about five and read a couple of books a week. The Cartographers is the worst book I’ve ever read. I love maps and libraries. The off-center premise and setting of the book kept me going, hoping that it would grab me around the next corner. It never did, and when at last I finished it, I felt like kissing the ground. Let me count the reasons why I hate The Cartographers. 1) the characters never reveal themselves, despite the author’s endless exposition. She tries, god knows. Three-quarters of the way in she’s still telling us that one of them is diabolical, one is shy, one is kind, another insecure, and all are brilliant. But these traits don’t show themselves in dialog or action. Attempts at a couple surprise character twists fall flat; they’re obvious early on. 2) The plot moves like treacle. We wade through ten or fifteen pages of exposition and reflection for each page that moves the plot. Maybe Tana French can pull this off but Peng Shepherd can’t, at least in The Cartographers. 3) The plot is horse hockey. Lots of thrillers depend on suspension of disbelief, but the good ones make it plausible within the logic of the story. This one doesn’t. 4) The editor was out to lunch. Stop with the exposition! Cut the adverbs! Tell us once (better yet, don’t tell us at all; show us)! 5) Robbery is when you grab somebody by the collar or stick a gun in their face and say “Gimme your dough.” Breaking into a library or school and lifting a map is not robbery, it’s burglary. Small, nit-picky point, I know, but… broken windows! Let the small stuff go and bit literary crimes ensue! Is it even possible to make cartographers and libraries thrilling? I hoped so, and waited for it to happen. But it was like setting a thriller in a turnip field. There just isn’t all that much to get excited about. The only thing I like about The Cartographers is that the author knows where the University of Wisconsin is. Go Badgers!