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Jan 18, 2012zipread rated this title 1 out of 5 stars
The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe. Three brothers, one lost in the west, two searching for him. A young girl killed. Sundry other scoundrels fitted into the plot neatly. The chief protagonist is a nineteenth-century gentleman (read upper class) with a most peculiar and curious fetish involving purloined pieces of my ladies clothing. Unlike some of Vanderhaeghe’s novels that are too diffident and timid to propel the reader into a story that seems not to exist, that wander seemingly without aim, this novel begins to tell a story. It may not be riveting and hair-raising in the tradition of a good detective novel but it does, at least, tell a story that invites you to pursue the plot a little further. But not for long. His vocabulary is at times challenging; his images keenly interesting; his development of characters engaging. The story grows, slowly, gradually. Too gradually for me. This shall be my last attempt at Vanderhaeghe. Modern times and fast moving novels, pulp fiction, have spoiled me for soething as slow moving, sedate as this novel. Some novels can beckon me away from the television but not the last crossing. I wanted desperately to like reading this book but no, it wasn’t in the cards. Halfway through the novel I must say this has been my last reading.