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This is a very sad story.

So far, so fine.

So far, so very good!

Written in the style of a graphic novel narrative.

When I started this, it reminded me of an early attempt at what Richard Osman does with Thursday Murder Club and We Solve Murders. It wasn't until page 106 that I came fully on board

Not starting out all that great. Page 2 has two consecutive sentences beginning with "But," and, on page 6, in a casual conversation about collegiate football, Decker uses the term "as of late."

Are/ of 2: I was taught in elementary school (I think) never to start consecutive sentences with "But".

After reading 4 "Memory Man" novels, I still can't figure out how Jamieson is at all qualified to be in the FBI.

General Lee's tailor, page 82: "One day, he fears, he shall be reduced to converting window dressings into ball gowns."

Is this a clever reference to Gone With The Wind? When I read it, I immediately thought of Carol Burnett's version.

My feeling right now is that this is a book about global issues and the human condition, not about about a bunch of assassins in a train.

1. She knew that pleading would never budge her daughter, not because she was dead but because she was stubborn.
2. Her expression dared you to teach her a lesson.
3.

SPOILER: I was so happy to see ART again. Then I wasn't. Then I was.

The thing - well, more accurately one of the things - well, even more accurately, one of the many things - that I love about these books is that, while reading along, you suddenly alert yourself that you've been sitting there reading with a smile on your face for several chapters.

See quote, of 227.
Reminds me of Johnny Got His Gun, Pirinisi, and the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan.

"I was, I thought, nothing more than the tingle that ran up their spines and tickled the napes of their necks when the candle flame danced and the shadows did a little unexpected jig."

The words of Carlos Ruiz Zafon are magic.

So far, there have been a couple of "dog barked" and a few "somewhere" but it wasn't until page 336 that "Somewhere a dog barked."

This sounds like a great idea for a mystery novel, but...every now and then, a word or phrase pops up that pulls me out of the story.

I wonder if, as an American, I simply am not familiar with British verbiage. For example, "... entirely devoted to destroying maleficium wherever he found it."

"The congregation broke apart like lumps of fat in a stew."

"...the brush ran through her hair like carp up a stream."

[ I won my Advance Reader's Edition in a Goodreads Giveaway, for which I thank them. ]

I have periodically visited both fiction and nonfiction concerning Nazi resistance (eg., the White Rose group of German students). I am so pleased to have won this copy, although here, 100 pages in, I can say that this is the most difficult book I have ever read. Can't read more than a chapter before emotions make me put it down.

First Dreadful is Frankenstein, about 150 pages long, perhaps the longest in this collection. Every so often, I found myself smiling at the elaborate sentence structure and/or word selection from that period (e.g., "for ever" instead of"forever").