Cover Image: ERROR OF JUDGMENT

ERROR OF JUDGMENT

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

Thankyou to NetGalley, Joffe Books and the author, Roy Lewis, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of Error Of Judgement in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.
I enjoyed this offering from an accomplished author. It offers a good, quick read. The storyline was well written and I found myself hooked from the start. A great read for a rainy day to pass the time.

Was this review helpful?

loved it could not put in down well written I liked Inspector John Crows character in the book is there plans for a book 3

Was this review helpful?

Classic murder mystery that is a light, easy read - one for fans of Endeavour, Heartbeat, Inspector George Gently.

Was this review helpful?

Not my usual genre but this book had me gripped throughout. Will be looking out for more of the same!

Was this review helpful?

A school protest has gone terribly wrong with the murder of the school rector’s secretary, it is now up to Detective Crow and his men to get to the bottom of this puzzling one. An intense and intriguing book that captivates your attention with gripping finality. I have to say one thing though these policemen are inept, a buncha klutz, they made a lot of blunders. An interesting and captivating read.

Was this review helpful?

I did enjoy this mainly due to the old ways that were used to solve the murder and catch a killer, this is not a descriptive murder novel , instead is a comfy read

Was this review helpful?

it is the second book in the John Crow series. Inspector Crow and Sergeant Wilson are called in to investigate the murder of a woman.Who is the murderer? I love the book, surely I will follow Inspector Crow.
Thanks Netgalley for this copy.

Was this review helpful?

The second installment in the Inspector John Crowe series shows the detective is fallible. Sent to solve a murder at a provincial British polytechnic college Crowe chases the wrong suspect. It's a wide-focused investigation with a number of suspects. It shows Roy Lewis' ability to keep readers' interest when the rubrics of a crime are not that exciting. It also displays again Lewis' unusually detailed manner of describing his characters.
Reliable is the word that comes to mind when assessing Lewis' skill with police procedurals. He doesn't blow you out of the water, but neither does he leave you struggling. For my taste, I found the first in the series (A Lover Too Many) more compelling, but I enjoyed this one and hope to read more of John Crowe. Thanks to the publisher for an advance copy.

Was this review helpful?

The first thing you have to remember about this series is that it is set in the 1960s before all current DNA and forensic techniques were available. With some books this makes the story very slow and laborious, but Roy manages to make them intriguing as the murder is so much harder to solve.

This book revolves around the murder of a woman who is the principal's secretary at the local college.

DI Crow and DS Wilson are sent to investigate and it is a very intriguing case for them.

The are lots of suspects to start with but they are soon eliminated.

Finally after a couple of final twists Crow and Wilson did something i couldn't by solving the case.

Overall this is a brilliant book, which i enjoyed and am looking forward to the next thrilling installment

Was this review helpful?

A story of intrigue, surprise and suspense. What will happen if a body is discovered and it is just the start of another mystery? Will they catch the killer in time or will more bodies turn up before it is too late? I am ready to read more books in this series. Thank you.

Was this review helpful?

I was first introduced to Inspector John Crow when I was invited to take part in the blog tour for Roy’s first book ‘A Lover Too Many’, which is set during the Sixties. I absolutely love anything to do with the 1960s. I am an avid watcher of anything like ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘Inspector George Gently’. I did enjoy reading ‘A Lover Too Many’ but I loved ‘Error Of Judgement’ even more. I absolutely loved reading ‘Error Of Judgment’ but more about that in a bit.
Inspector John Crow is a rather enigmatic character in that we don’t know a right lot about him. He is a middle aged man, who has been in the police force for a number of years. Crow has a low tolerance rate for people who believe that they can pull the wool over his eyes and for those who fail to give him the whole truth when he asks for it. He is rather blunt and at times his personal charm skills leave a lot to be desired. Crow certainly doesn’t beat around the bush and he gets stuck into a case straightaway. Crow is methodical and I think that he is not somebody who would cut corners whilst he is on a case.
It took me a little while to get into this book but I don’t mean that negatively. Roy has a particular writing style which is more old school and it took me a while to get used to it. Once I got used to it then blimey oh riley did I get into the book or what? Once I got into the book, then I seemed to speed through the rest of the story. The chapters are rather long but I didn’t notice how long the chapters took to read because I was so focused on the story and the investigation that I automatically kept turning pages without realising how many pages I had actually turned? I hope that makes sense. The page numbers seemed to fly by in a blur and it seemed to take next to no time to fly through the book. I was genuinely disappointed to finish reading this book, which I think is a lot better than the first book. It’s safe to say that I was addicted to reading ‘Error Of Judgement’ and I was always in need of my next fix. I enjoyed the way in which the book was written as it meant that I could play at being an armchair detective. I was so convinced by the story and the characters that I found myself interacting with the book. Before anybody pulls me up and reminds me that this is a work of fiction, I know that it is fictional but if I enjoy a book I tend to ‘live’ the story. I found myself shouting out random comments at the book, which gained me some strange looks from the other passengers on the bus. Reading ‘Error Of Judgement’ was like riding on a slightly scary and slightly unpredictable rollercoaster with twists and turns aplenty.
In short I really enjoyed reading ‘Error Of Judgement’ and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series. I would recommend this book to other readers and particularly to those who enjoy reading historical crime. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

Was this review helpful?

A good old fashioned mystery, well written and entertaining. It was like travelling back in time and I really appreciated both the style of writing and the characters.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC

Was this review helpful?

Not really a book that really captured my imagination and I gave up at 27%. This was a shame as the premise of the story was really promising but it failed to grip me.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you NetGalley and Joffe Books for this arc.

I believe this is the 2nd of the Inspector Crowe stories being re-issued by Joffe Books having been initially written during the 1960s sometime. I found it to be a good solid police procedural story and well-plotted. I just had a tough time warming up to any of the characters. They all just felt so "stiff" to me. While I was around during the 1960s..... I was a young teen and don't really remember everyone being so formal. From the book's blurb, I imagined Inspector Crowe to be a more curmudgeonly character (and who doesn't love a curmudgeon?) but I just found him abrupt and almost condescending. The story did hold my interest all the way through however so on that basis I rate this 3 stars. I'll perhaps try another one in the series, but I'm not sure I'd seek out others.

Was this review helpful?

Another case for Inspector John Crow. An intriguing story of murder the author gives the reader an in-depth and interesting view of the country side and life evolving around a college at the centre of this investigation.

Was this review helpful?

Inspector John Crow and his colleague, Sergeant Wilson, are called in to investigate the finding of a dead woman.

As they investigate, they discover that she was the principal's secretary. Several suspects come to the forefront.. all of them department heads.

Who would want this woman dead? What did she see .. or know? Was this a school-involved killing .. or more a personal one?

Set in England in the late 1960s, solving crime is difficult .. .there were no cell phones, no DNA tests, no personal computers.

This is a solid mystery with Crow first finding who he thinks is responsible ... and then trying to find the tangible proof. There are several twists and turns that led me in one direction, and then another. Crow and Wilson work well together, I enjoy how they relate to each other.

Although 2nd in a series, this one reads well as a stand alone. I do recommend starting with the first book, A LOVER TOO MANY, who first introduces the reader to Inspector Crow.

Many thanks to the author / Joffe Books / Books n All / Jill Burkinshaw / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for this read.
I really am in two minds about this book. On the one hand it has a pretty decent storyline and it captured the essence of detective work in the 1960s - well before the days of CSI, but on the other, there seemed to be an inordinate amount of detailed and repetitive descriptives which I did not feel added anything of import to the storyline. I felt I was watching a black and white portrayal of Gideon of The Yard on a wet Sunday because there were no other programmes available.
Perhaps I am too Inured to modern detective writing, but I honestly didn't enjoy this book very much. Sorry

Was this review helpful?

This is the second Inspector Crow book by Roy Lewis, first published in 1971, and it is just as excellent as the first one, to which I gave a glowing review. Roy Lewis, who started publishing in the late sixties, and was active into this century is unjustly underrated, and deserves to be considered in the first rank of British crime writers. Over the years I read just about everything of his that was published in the United States, and enjoyed them thoroughly.

“Error in Judgment” is set primarily at a Polytechnic college, which seems to be less than a university, but more than a community college in American terms. A young woman is murdered, and Inspector Crow is called in. There are suspects galore, and a secondary plot of student unrest and demonstrations. I don’t like spoilers, so I will say no more on the subject.

The reader is reminded that this book was written nearly fifty years ago, but it is not particularly dated. A good story is a good story, and people are the same now as they were then. There is less reliance on technology, but this only increases the human dimension. Inspector Crow has to rely on his common sense and his understanding of human nature to solve the crime. I freely confess that the ending took me by surprise.

You cannot go wrong by reading a book by Roy Lewis. This is not a thriller, it is a detective story, and it is first-rate. I am eagerly looking forward to the next one.

Was this review helpful?

This is the 2nd of the Inspector Crowe mysteries. They are set in the 60s - no mobile phones or internet - just students learning to rebel and youth culture becoming an item. A time when students start calling one another comrade.

This one is set in and round a Polytechnic and concerns both the staff and students. Inspector Crowe has to deal with the students and their idea that 'the fuzz' are part of 'the Establishment' and are the enemy. Getting serious evidence from them makes life difficult.

Was this review helpful?