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| The Somnambulist | 
 enlarge | Author: Jonathan Barnes
Publisher: William Morrow
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $5.75
You Save: $18.20 (76%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $3.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  (48 reviews)
Sales Rank: 41091
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.4 x 1.5
ISBN: 0061375381
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN: 9780061375385
ASIN: 0061375381
Publication Date: February 1, 2008
Release Date: February 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Wickedly funny July 14, 2008
This book was so much fun to read. As the author warns - it is perhaps without any literary merit whatsoever. But it is good, good fun. Silly, bizarre and quirky to the end. A great beach read for those who like well written prose about crazy, nonsensical characters on an equally crazy adventure.
What a trip July 10, 2008
I finished reading this book six weeks ago, and I'm still thinking about it now. The characters are fantastic (literally, as nothing like this ever actually happened), plot is very intricate and there's more than one twist to keep things interesting.
I can only hope that this book is not self contained and that there will be future volumes featuring Mr. Moon and The Somnambulist. Hopefully we see The Prefects again too, definately the most unusual characters to be dropped into a realistic London setting.
 Couldn't finish it July 7, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I don't understand the great reviews for this book in the popular press. The first half, which was all I managed to get through, was mildly entertaining, but instead of firming up, it degenerates into absurdity -- pointless characters introduced at every turn, ridiculous plot devices, unanswered questions -- you name it, the author threw it in there. I'm not against this in principle, but it wasn't done well here. Added to this, the book was poorly edited, with some fairly major grammatical and continuity errors in every chapter (the ones I read, anyway). I gave it one star because I thought the writing style was good, and I liked the author's use of unusual words.
 Clearly a talented writer, but needs clearer direction July 5, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
_The Somnambulist_ has a lot going for it: an admitedly unreliable narrator, murder, a protagonist who may be past his prime, and of course, the Somnambulist, who remains an enigma throughout. I had thought I had stumbled on to a 5-star book. Unfortunately, Barnes tries to do too much with his characters and the story.
A murder mystery set in Edwardian England will always get my attention - and _The Somnambulist_ has a tremendously promising beginning as we are introduced to Edward Moon (an investigator whose best days are behind him given an apparently botched case) and his partner, the silent, odd-looking (and, unless I missed something, inappropriately named) Somnambulist who are called to solve a puzzling murder. Unfortunately, things quickly deteriorate: in an attempt to thicken the plot and perhaps provide red herrings, Barnes makes the story increasingly improbable with gaping holes and undeveloped plot points. (The relationship between Barabbas, Moon and his sister Charlotte is never clarified, for example. How the Somanmbulist can do the remarkable things he does is another.) As other reviewers have mentioned, the characters Boon and Hawker - McGuffins - are vastly more interesting and entertaining than the other characters, but they arrive in the story too late to rescue it. The ending of the story was underwhelming.
Some apparently didn't care for the writing, as Barnes does tend to use words uncommon to American vernacular ("prolix", "etiolate", for example; even "somnambulist" is out of common usage); I thought the choice of words were appropriate given the time and the narrator, although I undestand where these criticisms are coming from.
The story certainly had promise, and I look forward to more by this author as he matures and grows in his craft. I do wonder if perhaps Barnes' debut novel is the beginning of a series with these characters (it would certainly explain the many undeveloped relationships and connections between characters.) Still, I can't recommned _The Somnambulist_.
Great Reaad June 25, 2008
The negative reviews of this book all seem to point to one thing -- this book is not a true mystery. This is not Sherlock Holmes, part deux. If you open and read this book without trying to box it into the mystery genre, you will find an extremely literate novel. The characters are very well developed. The plot has many well-plotted twists, and Barnes does not take any short cuts, neatly tying up all the threads by the close.
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