Almost finished reading J.A. Jance's mystery series starring Sheriff Joanna Brady. Reading a series back -to-back gets boring. Writers have to catch up readers about recurring characters or events that happened in previous novels because readers may not have read them. It gets like, yeah, yeah, I know her husband Andy died and her father was killed by a drunk driver and so on.
I pretty much like the series, easy reading; Jance uses prologues which I generally do not like, but it sets the stage or hooks readers wanting to know more. Yet it seems the novels have two many stories going on at the same time. Two unrelated murders or two mysteries to solve in Paradise Lost.
What irked me about Paradise Lost is that the sister of a murdered woman disappeared from the story never to be heard from again after playing a big role at the onset of the story. No notifying sis that they found out who done it. Nor was the murdered woman's husband notified. I guess those things are understood. Yet it was almost like the corpse disappeared as the story veered off on the second murder and pursuit of both killers. Yet to me it did not tie up the loose ends.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Blue Monday
Blue Monday is a mystery novel by Nicci French. Nicci French is the pseudonym of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French.
I wonder how it would be to co-write a novel. How does it work? Do they each write different chapters or write gender specific parts? Do they discuss it as they go along and so on.
Spoiler Alert: Unless I missed it, a father and sister of a girl who disappeared at 5-years-old, were told that she was found many years later. But not the mother of said girl. The parents were divorced. Did Nicci think Sean wrote that part? Or was it Nicci's job to do so and neither noticed the oversight.
I liked Blue Monday, but had moments when reading was slow going due to boredom.
Quotes:
"He was a great believer in denial. In his experience, that was how people stayed sane."
"...in my experience, people don't feel nearly enough guilt. They feel shame when they're caught, all right, but no guilt if they're not." This is applying to criminals. I have known too many who go out of their way to hurt people, then walk away without a backward glance.
One absolved himself of all guilt; spoke about personal responsibility. It was your fault I picked your pocket, you should have been more careful. It was your fault I cheated on you, you should not have trusted me. It is your fault that I did thus and such, you let me, or, you should not have believed me; you should have known I was lying.
"...a lot of what look like responses to the environment decisions mad using free will, are just the working out of patterns that the subject was born with."
Example was given of a female turtle at sea who returns to shore to bury eggs, despite not having watched a mother turtle do so. "Certain neutrons just start to fire in ways we don't understand, and it just knows what to do."
"People talk about our brains being like computers. If that's true---which it isn't---then the computer comes into the world with a lot of its software preinstalled."
I wonder how it would be to co-write a novel. How does it work? Do they each write different chapters or write gender specific parts? Do they discuss it as they go along and so on.
Spoiler Alert: Unless I missed it, a father and sister of a girl who disappeared at 5-years-old, were told that she was found many years later. But not the mother of said girl. The parents were divorced. Did Nicci think Sean wrote that part? Or was it Nicci's job to do so and neither noticed the oversight.
I liked Blue Monday, but had moments when reading was slow going due to boredom.
Quotes:
"He was a great believer in denial. In his experience, that was how people stayed sane."
"...in my experience, people don't feel nearly enough guilt. They feel shame when they're caught, all right, but no guilt if they're not." This is applying to criminals. I have known too many who go out of their way to hurt people, then walk away without a backward glance.
One absolved himself of all guilt; spoke about personal responsibility. It was your fault I picked your pocket, you should have been more careful. It was your fault I cheated on you, you should not have trusted me. It is your fault that I did thus and such, you let me, or, you should not have believed me; you should have known I was lying.
"...a lot of what look like responses to the environment decisions mad using free will, are just the working out of patterns that the subject was born with."
Example was given of a female turtle at sea who returns to shore to bury eggs, despite not having watched a mother turtle do so. "Certain neutrons just start to fire in ways we don't understand, and it just knows what to do."
"People talk about our brains being like computers. If that's true---which it isn't---then the computer comes into the world with a lot of its software preinstalled."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)