David Beeley

I have had this e-book for about a year and a half, and periodically open it and continue reading…but I just can’t anymore. At one point, I made a list on paper of all the characters with some biographical notes, as there were so many and they just weren’t sticking in my head. Overall, I’ve just found the book hard to follow. I’m 50% of the way through according to my eReader, and have no idea where the story is going. There are about 8 main characters, none of whom I could relate to, nor were any of them interesting enough for me to care about; and some were downright annoying. More problematic though, for me, was the writing. Run on sentences I got lost in and repetitive descriptions which made me start skimming were prevalent. The writing style felt a bit more like someone telling me a story (verbally) - where you sort of meander from one thought to another. This can work in conversation, but in a written book, it just left me confused and lost.  Too much “transportation” - introducing the characters without really getting into the story - and hard to follow writing style made this book one I couldn’t finish, but I wanted to submit a review out of appreciation that I had the opportunity to give it a try. Not every book is right for every reader!… (altro)

I really wanted to like Secrets, Lies and Rhubarb Pies because it was described as being about people in a small English town and I love rhubarb pie. David Beeley follows the lives of a large number of people who all have a garden allotment in the small town of Newhill. The characters were individual enough to keep straight but too superficially drawn to really care about. Each one had a problem, hidden for a while but then suddenly and almost unbelievably solved. The book needs extensive editing both for the redundant words and for the run on sentences. I never found the rhubarb pie.s… (altro)