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The Dancing Men
'In The Dancing Men, on the other hand, the plot is emphatically what counts. Most of the characterization is no more than adequate, and there are some hefty implausibilities, but Duncan Kyle keeps your curiosity simmering away too effectively for you to mind very much.
The background is political, with nothing less than the Presidency itself at stake. A new candidate enters the lists, radiating charisma - a natural choice, it would seem, for his party's nomination. But you can't be too careful, and his advisers decide to check out everything about him, including an Irish grandfather about whom almost nothing is known. A genealogist is put on the trail, so discreetly that when the man who hired him is killed in a car crash the other advisers don't know how to contact him. But what they do know is that he has begun to unearth a series of ever-deepening scandals.
Both the genealogist's hunt for the truth and the politicians' hunt for the genealogist yield some exciting twists, in a plot that zigzags halfway round the world. Toward the end of the story, though, there is a certain running out of steam, as the chief villain turns out to be a bit too melodramatic even by the prevailing standards.'
The background is political, with nothing less than the Presidency itself at stake. A new candidate enters the lists, radiating charisma - a natural choice, it would seem, for his party's nomination. But you can't be too careful, and his advisers decide to check out everything about him, including an Irish grandfather about whom almost nothing is known. A genealogist is put on the trail, so discreetly that when the man who hired him is killed in a car crash the other advisers don't know how to contact him. But what they do know is that he has begun to unearth a series of ever-deepening scandals.
Both the genealogist's hunt for the truth and the politicians' hunt for the genealogist yield some exciting twists, in a plot that zigzags halfway round the world. Toward the end of the story, though, there is a certain running out of steam, as the chief villain turns out to be a bit too melodramatic even by the prevailing standards.'
- GenresFictionLiterary Fiction
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
30 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 16, 2021
Well, this book is definitely not my cup of tea.
Politics is unnecessarily complicated in real life, and the fact that this is fiction makes it feel unnecessary to me.
The big twists being an ancestors' dark past and a manageable disease don't make it a fun read (though scandals are fun, I don't see how they affect anything)
I could have done with someone telling what was going to happen in a paragraph.
And the lack of justice was infuriating tbh. Well, 7 years, I finally read this book. I'm just glad it was only 256 pages.
I gave 3 stars because the characters are well written and you're able to form a connection with them.
Politics is unnecessarily complicated in real life, and the fact that this is fiction makes it feel unnecessary to me.
The big twists being an ancestors' dark past and a manageable disease don't make it a fun read (though scandals are fun, I don't see how they affect anything)
I could have done with someone telling what was going to happen in a paragraph.
And the lack of justice was infuriating tbh. Well, 7 years, I finally read this book. I'm just glad it was only 256 pages.
I gave 3 stars because the characters are well written and you're able to form a connection with them.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 4, 2020
What a good read this book proved to be. Lost at the back of the bookcase, it could easily have been written for today, as 30 odd years ago.
June 7, 2022
I loved Duncan Kyle & Gavin Lyall as a kid - Nice to revisit one I hadn't read - Liked it! Leyden is Biden? Written 1985 and don't think Biden ran until later in the 80s - when he poached that Kinnock speech LOL
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews