davidetolu Male, 40. Italy

I was struck by the elegant title - from a poem by William Blake - of this old book abandoned on a second hand shop. I wasn't deluded. The world of amateur detective Dr. Davie drew my attention through the pages with a skillful, witty writing. As Dr. Davies says about detective stories: "Miss Murchinston solved her cases by instinct - which was unfair but preferable to all that boring expertise about police procedure." This is the way Dr. Davie also works: by instinct, sense of humor and a real interest for human destiny.

Che cosa hanno in comune un famoso burattino, un'altrettanto famosa sirena, e il robot del titolo? L'aspirazione all'umanità. E se nessuno poteva negare che Pinocchio o la Sirenetta fossero in tutto e per tutto umani, quando si trasformarono in tali, l'uomo positronico di Asimov e Silverberg deve invece combattere tutta la sua vita per soddisfare la sua più grande ambizione. [...] Nel raccontare la storia di Andrew, i due autori affrontano forse il tema più profondo che possa esistere: che cos'è, in effetti, l'umanità?

(tutto il commento su http://www.oggileggo.splinder.com)

Conan Doyle must have grown tired of his creature when he wrote The Valley of Fear. Fourth and last of Sherlock Holmes novels, only the first part is dedicated to Holmes while the second is the account of another, equally brilliant detective. The author's fascination for extraordinary men, heroes who devote themselves to justice, is showed once again in the character of John McCurdo, a killer and a criminal belonging to a lodge which is in reality a criminal organization. With a generous coup de théatre, the man reveals to be Birdy Edwans, none other than a Pinkerton detective infiltrated into the lodge in order to collect evidence and destroy its members. So this time Holmes' case is about another detective. But the latter, who has many of the qualities of S.H. himself, has to die and leave the original one to vigil upon his soul and seek revenge for his murder. Once again Moriarty's shadow casts upon the lives of noble men and corrodes the peace of the whole England, extending overseas its gloomy hand. The destiny of the world rests in the hands of two men, and it is a good vs bad battle all over again.

(from http://oggileggo.splinder.com )

Not bad written but the story is only focussed on the main character and her inner world and has almost no frame. Most of all, I wonder: was miss Paula Christian trying to convince the reader that being lesbian is an evil thing? Well, she seemed not at all convinced herself, judging by the numbers of novels she wrote on this particular subject.