Talking to the Dead

Talking to the Dead is a mystery, set in Wales, and written by Harry Bingham.  The main character, Fi Griffiths is a police officer working, with a large number of colleagues, on a grim murder case.  Fi herself suffers from some psychological problems that make her approach to things quite unique.  The story itself was fairly interesting and reasonably entertaining.  But… sometimes you can read a book with a female point of view that is written by a man and not even know (or care) that the author is a man.  Sometimes you can’t.  This is one of the times you can’t.  Even though he has created a psychologically damaged character she still doesn’t come across as a believable woman (at least to me).  This is a man writing what he thinks a woman thinks and feels (and getting it wrong).  I will admit that I’m curious if a man reading this book would find her as unrealistic as I do or if he would just accept the stereotypes and misinformation that the author apparently has and find her authentic.

All in all, I would not recommend this book.