ashes ➷ answers “I won't have read this book if I had known...”

Deborah asked this question about In the Woods:

I won't have read this book if I had known that the first mystery would not be solved. I dislike intensely books that do this. What is your opinion?

ashes ➷ To give my two cents: I don't have time to read every book in the world, so I've started looking up plots to mysteries that sound interesting but not …moreTo give my two cents: I don't have time to read every book in the world, so I've started looking up plots to mysteries that sound interesting but not interesting enough to read in full. I was disappointed, and I just read the Wikipedia summary!

I think what ticks me over is the fact that this is the primary mystery. Yes, there's something going on with girls, but any blurb for this book will focus on the crazy unsolved disappearance of the detective, positing the new one as an OPPORTUNITY to discover what happened to him. That's the whole point. Look at the GR synopsis-- an entire paragraph for the former, and one phrase ("a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery") for the latter.

Saying that there's no connection at all after purposefully misleading readers like that is really frustrating, and while it's fair to say that Life Isn't Always Simple, mystery readers aren't necessarily looking for that-- and they're definitely not looking for it in books that set themselves up in this manner. That's actually why I'm here to begin with-- I was shocked a book that does this could have such high reviews!

But that's just my opinion as someone who hasn't read the book ;)(less)

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