Alibi
A Novel

Anything World War II fascinates me to pieces, and the premise of this novel was no exception. Only problem: the premise was about the only exciting thing about it. At times, I was just forcing myself to get through it. But it wasn't all bad. The use of metaphors (especially with the canals) to repr......more

Even these days, walking round the Cannaregio at night, and especially when the mist lies low off the Lagoon, Venice takes on that strange, dreamlike quality, as if nothing is real... as if you're in a movie. Thus it is with the opening pages of "Alibi". I almost hear the voiceover in "The Third Man......more

This is a well written book that took me a bit of time to engage with as the plot moves quite slowly at the start. The action takes place in Venice in 1946 and events are narrated by the main character, Adam Miller, who has come to Venice to visit his widowed mother. He falls under the spell of Clau......more

I really liked the opening sequences, set in Venice right after WWII but I hated the middle chapters, finding them tedious. (A bozo guy commits a murder, and then seeks to help an extremely crafty detective solve it. Actually, he was seeking to "unsolve" the murder, but still?) However, I absolutely......more

After really enjoying Kanon's Leaving Berlin, I was looking forward to reading other books by Kanon. This was my second, and I did not like it nearly as much. I was greatly taken in at the beginning by the setup and the atmosphere: Post WWII Venice and the problem of leaving (or not) the offences of......more