Is That All There Is?

[Peg Herring]

Not surprising for those who read here regularly, I have a complaint about a book I just finished. WHY DIDN'T SOMEONE MENTION TO THE AUTHOR THAT THE PLOT DOESN'T RESOLVE?

I have every sympathy for the pressures put on authors to get the next book done, and I know from personal experience that a writer can leave big plot holes when there isn't time to let the thing rest in a drawer somewhere until he can look at it with fresh eyes. But surely those who have agents and editors galore at their command should get help from those people in finding the holes. Is everyone afraid to say to a big-time author, "This doesn't work?" or "You left out the explanation for the crime," or in this case, "You hinted that the murderer didn't actually murder ALL of the victims but you never said, or even hinted, who did."

In this case the murderer (the one who got caught) was a mild-mannered guy who admitted to most of his crimes but steadfastly insisted he didn't kill one of the victims. That's standard mystery-plot stuff, and the reader picks up on it. It's repeated later on: he says he didn't kill X, only Y. And X was beaten to death, brutally, while Y was shot. By a Casper MIlquetoast like that? Can't buy it. The only other prospect is dead and equally unlikely to have done it. The book ends with everyone making nice and the sleuth apparently unconcerned with Casper and the dead "maybe" getting the blame for it all.

I don't approve. I can go with the idea that the real killer got away with it, but as a reader I need some sort of recognition that it happened, some sort of understanding of why things are going to be left that way. I don't care how great your writing is, there are rules, and somebody should have at least asked, "Are you going to leave it hanging like that?"

[Peg Herring]

Good point, Neil. I guess in the end we have to blame the author.
I read one similar to what Dana describes a few years ago and gave up on that author too. Can you say, "Deadline looming?"

[Neil Nyren]

Peg -- Maybe somebody did. And the author said, "Yes." I've had that happen.

[Dana King]

I reviewed a book a few years ago that was even worse than this. It. Just. Stopped. Moving along nicely, easy read, funny in spots, lively characters. Then it skipped from the lead up to the climax straight to the denouement. Seriously. It was so abrupt I even contacted the publicist to see if any pages were missing from my ARC. I'll never read that author again which is a shame, as I liked 90% of the book. I just don't trust him anymore.