Hawksmoor Audiobook (Unabridged)

" A structurally complicated historical novel despite being only 217 pp. Nicholas Dyer, early 18th century architect, practitioner of the dark arts and murderer reaches out through time to modern London creating "Terrour" leaving corpses at the sites of the churches he designed. Time is particularly out of joint and the "shaddowes" of the fear and irrationality he believes to be stronger than sense and reason make themselves felt. In its own quirky and studied way this is a very scary novel. "

" Such a brilliant idea, but ran out of steam? "

" So the blurb on the back of the book had almost zero to do with the plot, which involves the Plague and the Great Fire of London, and an 18th century Satan-worshiping church builder who sacrifices children, and mysterious present day murders at those churches which may or may not be being perpetrated by a ghost... it's a deeply weird book. It's also one of those books that was clearly written for other writers. He's put together the narrative like a piece of old-fashioned clockwork, and it's breathtaking stuff. Motifs, names, events, character's gestures, they all keep clicking and whirring around and around each other, cog and teeth fitting so seamlessly it makes you feel all liquidy inside. This book also had some of the most gorgeous lines of any I've recently read. "Anxiety was, for her, a form of prayer." Oh so perfect. Which is why at the end I threw the book across the room. It had been such a perfect read until the last two chapters when... nothing happened. The characters just did one more rotation and the mechanism wound down. No real climax, no resolution, I'm not even sure what the hell happened, to be honest. "

" This book was inventive and strange, strange, strange. I just couldn't get excited by it though. I still love Peter Ackroyd, he's so evocative! "

" Very interesting but not very involving. Character development weak. The old english is interesting but these sections are rather plodding. The modern sections are weak in plot and action. Comes off as an exercise that wasn't flushed out. "

" I liked how moments from one story were echoed in the other, but at times (especially in the Dyer story), the language makes the story too difficult to follow. "

" Oh dear lord, this was awful! Words cannot express the awfulness of this book, just as they could not express the plot or any character development. "

" F*in Amazing!!! Grab From Hell and Drood to read all three together! "

" It was OK, couldn't get into it. I preffered the old London/Hawsmoor storyline rather than the parallel contemporary detective story. "

" A novel that celebrates the mysterious corners of dark London and the interplay between history and the present. Beautiful language and great use of perspective. Simply wonderful. "

" It gets 4 stars now, but I think I'll pick it up and re-read it when it gets a little colder, and it might get a fifth star then. "

" A well-constructed and cleverly written book, with a quite odd, but gripping plot. Ackroyd really knows his London, and it shows. Classy. "

" There was something very false about the whole book - over dramatic, convoluted... I can't say, but I didn't really enjoy it. "

" After reading two mediocre novels in a row I turned to Peter Ackroyd, who never disappoints me. "

" Opinando un poco, solo un poco. "

" Decided to abandon this one, at least for the time being - life is too short to force your way through a book you're not enjoying! "

" I give Hawksmoor one star for an interesting story line, but reading this novel is not worth the effort. Much of it is a narrative written in 18th century english. Every sentence is a struggle and the story is incomprehensible. Fortunately, it was only about 200 pages. "

" An immensely chilling little book. A haunting ghost story made most effective not by temporal shifts so much as temporal seepage. Ackroyd nearly creates a literal palimpsest. Might eventually bump it up to five stars. "

" Dark and not easy tale of parallels and slow descent into madness. Worth the trouble, but maybe read by me at the wrong moment. "

" There was something very false about the whole book - over dramatic, convoluted... I can't say, but I didn't really enjoy it. "

" Ackroyd is one of those rare authors who can write imaginative fiction as well as factual books based on sound in-depth research. His knowledge of time and place is outstanding and probably why the characters have such life. "

" A well-constructed and cleverly written book, with a quite odd, but gripping plot. Ackroyd really knows his London, and it shows. Classy. "

" F*in Amazing!!! Grab From Hell and Drood to read all three together! "

" This mired itself in the complexity of language used, and left little opportunity to establish any hold on the reader. "