Title: The Winter StationAuthor: Jody Shields
Genre: Historical Fiction
Synopsis: It's 1910 in a Russian occupied town in the Manchuria region of China. An aristocratic Russian doctor who, unlike many other Russians in the town, has great respect for the Chinese culture, starts to notice mysterious unreported deaths of Chinese people. It starts with two bodies abandoned at the train station and slowly starts to grow. Government officials want to ignore these deaths, but the Baron will not let this go uninvestigated.
My Thoughts
From the back cover, I thought that this would be presented as a mystery with lots of suspense. Unfortunately, the first few chapters come across more like, "oh dead people, the government won't care because they aren't Russians. Oh, more dead people, let's send in more doctors to investigate. Oh, its a plague." And then the rest of the book documents the horrors of the plague and how the doctors can't agree on treatment or mode of transmission, the incredible number of deaths, and people trying to avoid quarantine. When it finally gets interesting and the reader is invested, it just ends with the Baron trying to help one of his colleagues to leave the town. Talk about anticlimactic.
It is based on a diary kept by the Baron, who is the main character, so that is interesting. It is also a part of history that was buried because it was embarrassing to the Russian government how poorly it was handled. But, in the end, it seems like the author tried to take a diary and make it fiction, but didn't add enough meat to make it the truly enthralling mystery it could have been.
I have not gotten into the last couple of books that I have read. Let's hope my next read, Crazy Rich Asians, will live up to the hype! As always, I will keep you posted.
Comment below if you have read this book or have suggestions for others like it!
To buy this book from Amazon now, click on the image at the top of the post.
To see more from the author, visit the website linked above
From the back cover, I thought that this would be presented as a mystery with lots of suspense. Unfortunately, the first few chapters come across more like, "oh dead people, the government won't care because they aren't Russians. Oh, more dead people, let's send in more doctors to investigate. Oh, its a plague." And then the rest of the book documents the horrors of the plague and how the doctors can't agree on treatment or mode of transmission, the incredible number of deaths, and people trying to avoid quarantine. When it finally gets interesting and the reader is invested, it just ends with the Baron trying to help one of his colleagues to leave the town. Talk about anticlimactic.
It is based on a diary kept by the Baron, who is the main character, so that is interesting. It is also a part of history that was buried because it was embarrassing to the Russian government how poorly it was handled. But, in the end, it seems like the author tried to take a diary and make it fiction, but didn't add enough meat to make it the truly enthralling mystery it could have been.
I have not gotten into the last couple of books that I have read. Let's hope my next read, Crazy Rich Asians, will live up to the hype! As always, I will keep you posted.
Comment below if you have read this book or have suggestions for others like it!
To buy this book from Amazon now, click on the image at the top of the post.
To see more from the author, visit the website linked above
No comments:
Post a Comment