I give this one 3 out of 5 Stars.
I couldn't sleep the other night so I decided to read one of the "free" books I'd downloaded from Amazon (Murder Comes Unraveled by Veryl Ann Grace, http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Comes-Unraveled-Flock-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00A42SBAK now $2.99) and it should have put me to sleep. Really. It should have mediocre-ed me to sleep.
It's not badly written, it's very cleanly written. But everything is too perfect. Places that would naturally use contractions were written out. I stumbled a bit in the reading of the sections before I got used to that. In the descriptions of what the character is doing as she goes through her day, the author goes through every step, whether it's necessary to the story or not. "I put all my handspuns and fleece out on the shelves, then took the dolly back to the truck and put it away. I gave Denali a pat. Ellen waved at me." That's not an actual quote, but an example.
Now, I'm all for setting the scene and describing things, and really getting into the life of the character, but after a while, you wonder what you need to pay attention to, if one of these pieces of iota will mean something later. But they don't. They're all just trivial pieces of life. And it's not even a statement on the trivia of life. It's just a mediocre mystery. It's a pleasant read, but it's just mediocre.
And the mystery is nothing, really. There's not much tension at all. I know it's a cozy, but even cozies have something. Anyway, whilst reading this thing, I did learn about fibers and wools and spinning and weaving. The author spent more time on Great Pyrenees dogs, alpacas, llamas and sheep than she did on the murder mystery. There's even a little bit of a romance, but you wouldn't really know she was in anyway invested in the love interest. And everything, even the conversation, is kind of like reading an informational book, except that all these women call each other "lady". And that's the thing. This is a murder mystery. The murder should be the most important thing, not the fibers or how great Pyrs are.
On the upside, besides learning about fibers and Great Pyrenees dogs, it's set in Washington state and it was nice to read about home. I haven't put corn chips (or heard about people putting corn chips) in my chili since before I moved to California. Used to do that all the time. The "lady" thing I remember from home, too. "Hey, lady! It's good to see you."
But, I couldn't sleep, so I ended up reading it in its entirety, even though I knew I should quit. And I didn't keep going because it was good. I just kept going because – just because.
Good for reading in the waiting room or while traveling.
2 comments:
Sometimes in early drafts of work I find myself doing this kind of thing, writing out every step of a character's actions. I think writer's do that because they are trying to visualize the character's behaviors for their own needs as writers. That's OK but you sure need to go back and cut a lot of that stuff out if you really want the work to be tight.
Yes! That's what it felt like! And I agree. Sooner or later you need to go back and smooth all that out.
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