Crime and Punctuation

Crime & Punctuation by Kaitlyn Dunnett

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


*** Possible spoilers ***

This isn't a terrible book but if I knew when I picked it up what it was like I would have moved on to something else. It's a basic whodunit There is one victim and a whole bunch of suspects. Generally I'm not good at sussing out the murderer but this time I had him pegged before the half-way point so perhaps the author is a little too obvious. In places the pacing is a bit slow but not terrible. What bothered me were the inconsistencies. A woman takes up work as an editor. A prospective novelist comes with a manuscript and hires her to edit it. Then the novelist dies a couple of days later under what the police first think are suspicious circumstances and then decide is suicide. The editor is a little disappointed she won't get paid her full price but she does have 50% for doing no work so things could be worse. She rationalizes the whole thing in none of her business. All this takes place in approximately four pages of the book. Fine, it's not her business. Case closed. The end. Yet one small detail doesn't make sense so she keeps going over and over it. The the police question her, she tells them of the one small detail and they take it under advisement. Fair enough. Case closed. The end. But no, she keeps going and going. Time after time she tells herself it's none of her business and she'd one-hundred percent correct. it isn't. She knows it. The author knows it. The reader knows it, but somehow she keeps digging into the case - ineffectually for the most part. Of course she had to keep going or there wouldn't be a book but in my opinion the author needed to work on her motivation big time.

Even the climax didn't make sense. She talks to the murderer without realizing he's the one she's looking for but she gives no indication she's on the right track. Yet he decides she needs to be silenced and comes after her. Say what? There are these little inconsistencies scattered throughout the story and about the only positive thing I can say is I got plenty of exercise from eye rolling. Anyway i do not recommend it. I'll concede the wordsmithing is quite good but the logic is pretty bad.



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