Books: Bad mysteries
Nov. 18th, 2011 08:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amanda_lodden* The Players Come Again by Amanda Cross (30)
It's about a book (which I presume is fake), about a particular Greek heroine, who I had to look up. Which was a little problematic, since I was reading it on a plane-- thus, no Wikipedia access to clue me in.
The official mystery ("Did the wife of the author ghost-write the book for him?") was lame. Three pages from the end, the heroine of the book revealed that she knew So-and-so killed Other-Guy, and proceeded to lay out her evidence for the police. Oh wait, no she didn't. She said "... but I don't really care, and I'm not even going to write the book I've already been offered a large advance for in which I might reveal your secret. So ... yeah. Congrats on getting away with it." (I'm paraphrasing.) Also? She didn't lay out any evidence for the reader, either. The only confirmation the reader has that she's right is that the accused murders look sheepish and admit to it.
* The Best American Mystery Stories edited by George Pelecanos and Otto Penzler
Two lies in the title. I'll give you a hint: they are stories, and they're probably American.
The back cover does warn that "Though there are twists and surprises to be discovered, none of these stories are puzzles, locked-room mysteries, or private detective stories." However, I was unprepared for the number of stories to greatly exceed the number of twists and surprises.
I gave up on this compilation about halfway through, when I realized that much of my problem is that the editor(s) were not doing their jobs-- two stories in a row were rambling and entirely too long, going off on tangents that took several pages and didn't advance the story in the slightest. There were a couple of stories early on that were okay. Not stellar, mind you-- if they were stellar, I would have kept reading in the hopes that there were more gems.
A good mystery is gripping. You WANT to know who did it. I've had my share of complaints about how a reveal was handled, but even the ones that made me gnash my teeth and raise my hands to the heavens in protest were still gripping.
It's about a book (which I presume is fake), about a particular Greek heroine, who I had to look up. Which was a little problematic, since I was reading it on a plane-- thus, no Wikipedia access to clue me in.
The official mystery ("Did the wife of the author ghost-write the book for him?") was lame. Three pages from the end, the heroine of the book revealed that she knew So-and-so killed Other-Guy, and proceeded to lay out her evidence for the police. Oh wait, no she didn't. She said "... but I don't really care, and I'm not even going to write the book I've already been offered a large advance for in which I might reveal your secret. So ... yeah. Congrats on getting away with it." (I'm paraphrasing.) Also? She didn't lay out any evidence for the reader, either. The only confirmation the reader has that she's right is that the accused murders look sheepish and admit to it.
* The Best American Mystery Stories edited by George Pelecanos and Otto Penzler
Two lies in the title. I'll give you a hint: they are stories, and they're probably American.
The back cover does warn that "Though there are twists and surprises to be discovered, none of these stories are puzzles, locked-room mysteries, or private detective stories." However, I was unprepared for the number of stories to greatly exceed the number of twists and surprises.
I gave up on this compilation about halfway through, when I realized that much of my problem is that the editor(s) were not doing their jobs-- two stories in a row were rambling and entirely too long, going off on tangents that took several pages and didn't advance the story in the slightest. There were a couple of stories early on that were okay. Not stellar, mind you-- if they were stellar, I would have kept reading in the hopes that there were more gems.
A good mystery is gripping. You WANT to know who did it. I've had my share of complaints about how a reveal was handled, but even the ones that made me gnash my teeth and raise my hands to the heavens in protest were still gripping.
