The Temple of Optimism

Apr 21, 2025 2:32 AM

Author:James Fleming,Robert Fleming

Famously, Jane Austen created a fictional universe for 'three or four families in a country village'. In this remarkable first novel James Fleming achieves something very similar: out of the relationships of two men and one woman in Derbyshire in 1788 he has created a fiction that bears comparison with the great novelists of the nineteenth century.Anthony Apreece covets the land of his young neighbour, Edward Horne. Edward covets Daisy, Anthony's wife. On such simple foundations, James Fleming builds a novel of extraordinary richness, at once a wholly convincing representation of an eighteenth-century world and an utterly modern dissection of two of mankind's most powerful passions: greed and love

Reviews

Heart-stoppingly good. One detects the hand of a master

—— Sunday Telegraph

A feast of a novel

—— Mail on Sunday

Startingly good

—— Daily Telegraph

A relentlessly suspenseful, soul-chilling thriller that hooks you instantly

—— Tess Gerritsen

A no-holds-barred thriller that thrusts the reader into the black soul of the killer ... those with a taste for Thomas Harris will look forward to the sure-to-follow sequel

—— Library Journal

Be prepared to stay up all night

—— James Ellroy

A specialist in serial killer tales ... a wonderfully evocative writer

—— Publishers Weekly

Razor-sharp plotting with a powerful narrative ... thrills to its very satisfying end

—— Chicago Tribune

Savvy and sharp ... as well-written a thriller as The Silence of the Lambs ... A winner

—— Nelson DeMille

With this novel, Montanari's reputation is set in stone - or written in blood - alongside the likes of Connelly, Slaughter and Ellroy

—— Crime Time Magazine

One of the genre's most enduring heroes. Tough, solitary, righteous and incorruptible, [Reacher] harks back to another great fictional detective, Philip Marlowe.

—— Glasgow Herald

A new Jack Reacher novel arrives as the year's first red-hot beach book...the success of these books rests partly on the big, hulking shoulders of their charismatic hero...one of the most enduring action heroes on the American landscape.

—— New York Times

This haunting, stand-alone novel is a subtler work than Child's previous output and offers a sensitively handled romantic sub-plot to boot.

—— Daily Telegraph

Child presses all the buttons... Another awesome performance

—— Mark Sanderson , The Scotsman

Brings a shock of moral horror that is unprecedented in Reacher novels

—— Toronto Star

Utterly compelling... one of Child's best. He keeps up the lightning pace, great writing and punchy one-liners throughout

—— Daily Express

A contender for top thriller of 2010

—— Sun (Best books of 2010)

A turbo-charged page-flipper: you're on page 300 before you take a breath...Child is a master of distances, spaces and the physics of opposing forces

—— The Scotsman

Previous Article：The Violet Hour Next Article：The Soul Collectors

Comments

Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.