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Complication (2012)

door Isaac Adamson

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385646,023 (3.4)9
Fiction. Literature. Mystery. Thriller. HTML:

Searching for his missing brother in Prague, an American encounters a world of killers, gangsters, and ancient mysteries in a "satisfyingly twisted tale" (Publishers Weekly).

When American collections agent Lee Holloway receives a letter from a mysterious woman named Vera concerning his missing brother Paul, curiosity takes him to Prague in search of answers. But what he finds in the historic city's looming shadows and cobbled streets is a mind-bending world of conspiracy and danger. A world where black magic and sixteenth-century alchemy aren't just footnotes in history books. A world where gangsters with fairy-tale names and a bloodthirsty serial killer exist alongside grim reminders of Nazi invasion. And where a priceless watch named The Rudolph Complicationâ??commissioned by an eccentric Roman emperorâ??is rumored to hold the secret to eternal life.

As Lee delves deeper into the question of Paul's fate, he discovers unsettling truths about his brother . . . and himself. Now Lee must unravel the tangled threads of Paul's last days if he wants to escape the ancient city alive.

Echoing with ghosts and mythic monsters from Europe's storied past, this is a heart-pumping thrill ride into the very heart of darkness.
… (meer)

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Toon 5 van 5
After his father dies, Lee finds a letter from a woman in Prague, claiming to have information about the accidental death of his brother there years before, so he impulsively hops a plane and soon finds himself embroiled in a complicated plot involving murder and the theft of a very unusual watch.

This was a book I picked up on impulse at the library, having never heard of the author before. It starts out strongly, sweeping the reader along with the befuddled narrator into a confusing, exotic European city where bodies keep turning up wherever he goes. We've seen this plot before, perhaps, but it's still fun. Yet it's not long before the story becomes way too convoluted, heading back in time in flashback interludes and bringing in a serial killer, a demon girl, a magical watch, and even the undead. It's a lot to swallow for what seemed to be a more grounded suspense-thriller. Still, I stuck with it and was rewarded with a twist out of left field that totally sank my opinion of the book. It was my impression that the author had thrown in every device he could think of, but he hadn't successfully knitted it together into a satisfying narrative. The e-book also contained an egregious number of typos that ruined the reading experience. It was a promising novel that ultimately fell flat for me. ( )
  sturlington | Sep 30, 2013 |
Complication is a good title for this unique if somewhat muddled mystery psychological thriller set in Prague. Sparked by Lee's discovery of a mysterious letter received by his now dead father, Lee faces questions around the death of Lee's brother Paul some five years previously in Prague.

There are a lot of interesting elements in this story. Sadly, the author wasn't very selective in his choice of what to include so he threw everything into the pot, making this a somewhat jarring read as he jumps us around from following our main narrator Lee, to reading 10 year old transcripts of a Czech secret police interrogation to reading written correspondence circa 1938. Adamson even manages to add elements of the magical/supernatural so it is safe to say this is not your typical mystery thriller.

Parts of the story worked for me - loved the horology, the palindromes, the unreliable characters that have you trusting them one minute and worried the next and the glimpses back in time - but the author left the 'connect the story elements' up to the reader to do and left out some background information that would have blended the various story elements together in a more logical fashion, without giving away any of the mystery. I felt like I was reading three different, only vaguely connected stories for most of the book.

The pieces do come together in the end but in a bit of a haphazard way. The best way to describe this story is to quote from the book itself:

"time seems to move as if governed by the Rudolf Complication, backwards and forwards at once, resolution getting closer each moment yet remaining tantalizingly beyond reach."

If you like your mystery thrillers set in present day Eastern Europe with a psychological and historical angle to the story and so long as you are not put off by a bit of technology and supernatural elements thrown into the mix, you may find this one to be a rather good read. If you do decide to pick this one up and give it a go, I recommend sticking it out to the end. It's a short book and Adamson does reward the reader with an interesting conclusion that had me replaying the story in my mind after finishing it to find the subtle clues that would have pointed to the conclusion, If I had known the direction the story would take. ( )
2 stem lkernagh | Apr 6, 2013 |
The author threw into the mix everything but the kitchen sink. The result is confusing mix of various story lines. They could be interesting by themselves but thrown together provides for disappointing result. ( )
  everfresh1 | Jul 14, 2012 |
This was a compulsively readable story that takes you down some interesting rabbit trails. The plot has many threads, but this is the type of book that will take a couple of readings to pick up on some of the more subtle clues. The end result was a book that has an ending that hits you between the eyes and you wonder what just happened.

Great story for those enjoying a good mystery.

Reader received a complimentary copy from Good Reads First Reads ( )
  dgmlrhodes | May 19, 2012 |
Isaac Adamson starts his latest book off with a refresher course in the definition of the word "complication', which also happens to be the title of the book. It is also a guidepost for the reader, for in this novel, set mostly in Prague, in various points of time, every single definition comes into play.

The main story line has Lee Holloway, a rather unassuming fellow, who, when cleaning out the detritus of his father's estate, finds a letter which indicates that the disappearance of Lee's younger brother Paul, in the Prague floods five years earlier, may have more mystery involved. (Side note: Two years after the death of my mother, I'm still clearing her estate and the detritus of her life. That Lee could dispose of just about everything so easily made me quite jealous.) Lee abandons his job at the Grimley & Dunballer Recovery Solutions, and heads off to meet Vera, who wrote the letter at The Black Rabbit, a pub in Prague.

From here the tale becomes curiouser and curiouser, and like Alice down the rabbit hole, things are not always what they seem. There's the basic story line of Lee and Vera, which takes more twists and turns than a Gordian knot, Communist era spies and interrogations, Rumpelstiltskin (or a gangster bearing the same name), alchemy, black magic (complete with John Dee and Edward Kelly), and the eve of the Nazi invasion of Prague, all centered around The Rudolf Complication, a fabled timepiece, built for the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, which runs both backwards and forwards, and grants eternal life.

It's a lot of threads to keep straight, but somehow it all works without derailing the reader's brain. The plot movements are like clockwork -- if the timepiece is The Rudolf Complication, that is, filled with fascinating twists, side-bits, and palindromes. There were moments in the book that just grabbed me for the detail or the phrasing. In hindsight, those moments were ones that gave me clues to unraveling some of the plot, thought I was not able to piece it all together to the end. And what an end. Wow. Complication is fascinating, entertaining, quirky, enlightening, and surprising. This book keeps the reader on all ten toes until the very end. ( )
  bookczuk | Mar 5, 2012 |
Toon 5 van 5
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Fiction. Literature. Mystery. Thriller. HTML:

Searching for his missing brother in Prague, an American encounters a world of killers, gangsters, and ancient mysteries in a "satisfyingly twisted tale" (Publishers Weekly).

When American collections agent Lee Holloway receives a letter from a mysterious woman named Vera concerning his missing brother Paul, curiosity takes him to Prague in search of answers. But what he finds in the historic city's looming shadows and cobbled streets is a mind-bending world of conspiracy and danger. A world where black magic and sixteenth-century alchemy aren't just footnotes in history books. A world where gangsters with fairy-tale names and a bloodthirsty serial killer exist alongside grim reminders of Nazi invasion. And where a priceless watch named The Rudolph Complicationâ??commissioned by an eccentric Roman emperorâ??is rumored to hold the secret to eternal life.

As Lee delves deeper into the question of Paul's fate, he discovers unsettling truths about his brother . . . and himself. Now Lee must unravel the tangled threads of Paul's last days if he wants to escape the ancient city alive.

Echoing with ghosts and mythic monsters from Europe's storied past, this is a heart-pumping thrill ride into the very heart of darkness.

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