“Who dies next?” booms a voice, and she looks up to behold her hand-holder, teeth bared in a laugh. The floor tilts beneath her. “That’s what tugs the reader forward. That’s what reels him in. Oh, he wants to know whodunit, of course; he’s eager for the solution. And if our reader is the unimaginative sort, he can reduce the book to a . . . what’s it called? Litmus test. Gladiator rules: thumbs up, thumbs down. ‘Does the ending surprise me?
