Review of "The Physic Garden"

Although the plot is not a mystery the writing is excellent and the sense of time and place impeccable

Review of "The Empress Emerald"

I wish I could remember who recommended this to me so that I could discount any future recommendations from that source. The first part covering Leo's childhood in India is not bad, but when we meet the soppy Davinia it goes rapidly downhill. Plot is completely disjointed, characters totally one dimensional, author over fond of invoking deus ex machina tricks rather than dealing with the consequences of her characters actions, minor (and not so minor) characters treated with complete distain. The author has no respect for the people he tries to create, and in fact abuses them. Overall it is like watching a child making up a nasty fairy story about some dolls and nothing like an engrossing narrative with anything interesting to say. I struggled on to the end increasingly despairing that anything remotely interesting would happen and hoping against hope that the end which had been obvious since Leo and Davina met might fail to happen - nothing unexpected happens. At time the technical quality of the writing is also poor - I'm guessing it went straight from word-processor to printer without a sub-editor.