I wish I could have read this book in French instead of Swedish, but I suspect it wouldn't have made much difference in the end. Not as far as my enjoyment of the book is concerned. I liked the setting: Paris in the late 19 century and the great Expo. The characters weren't likeable and the plot wasn't anything special, but still, historic and French - that helps. So I'll probably read the next book in the series, preferably in French, but I'll settle for a translation if that's more convenient. Just one thing about the title ("The Murder on the Eiffel Tower" and the Swedish equivalent). The translation doesn't do the original justice. ("The mystery of Rue Saint Pères") It has to be hinting at Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue so the translation should have reflected that.

The mystery had a bit of a lame conclusion but the atmosphere of this book more than made up for it. Set during the World Exposition of Paris and the unveiling of the Eiffel Tower, Paris during the fin-de-siecle is clearly evoked and made me wish I could visit. Victor Legris likable enough though he's a character I often wanted to reach into the book and shake some sense into. Really, read it for the atmosphere rather than the mystery.

Sehr langatmig, sehr wenig Story

Didn't really enjoy it. May have been a translation problem but I never run across that in the Scandinavian mysteries I read so probably just poor writing.

Maybe it lost something in the translation, but this book was just fine, not amazing, not horrible. Just something to read on a hot summer afternoon. I don't regret reading it, and wasn't ever bored by it exactly, but I don't feel compelled to read any more in the series.

The opening of the Eiffel Tower and the World Exposition of 1889 would seem to be a great setting for a historical mystery, but this novel features a stupid detective and a mystery that depends solely on opportunity for its solution.

See my complete review here:

http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/tag/murder-on-the-eiffel-tower/

One of those mystery novels where you can't really figure out whodunnit yourself - there are just endless red herrings until finally the clues are winnowed down sufficiently that the murderer is revealed (and then there is a big confession a la Agatha Christie to explain how it all went down). The characters were kind of flat, which may partly have been an issue of the translation but may also have been - well, an issue of the book's. Among other things our hero Victor falls for painter Tasha pretty much at first sight, stalks her at great length, is consumed by entirely-undeserved jealousy, and the two of them end up in bed together and declaring their love for each other without much development beyond that. Okay, then. The setting was vibrant but almost too much so - everything else that was going on (the murder plot) got bogged down in all the minutia of daily life.

2.5 stars rounded down.
I found the writing style irritating. Felt too frantic and too fragmented for me to really get stuck in.
It improved in the second half, but I feel like a murder mystery shouldn't take 150 pages to get going.
Maybe others would like the writing style? You certainly felt like you were in the main character's head!

1.5

This book was bad. Terrible in fact. The characters were flat, the writing bad, the plot confusing and the execution worse, and seriously, who writes down a confession "In case I would die and everyone has to know exactly what and how I did it"? No one. No one does.

However, I did enjoy it. It was, as little as I like to admit it, addicting and an overall enjoyable experience. It made me want to read again. Hence the point five plus.