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A review by liblibby
The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
I really like this author's works--I LOVED The Woman in the Library and I might even have liked this one more than that if it weren't for all the... tedious inaccuracies that I kept catching throughout the piece. It's so important to get a reader from the place where you're going to set your book if you're not terribly familiar with it.
It felt like there was a lot of research done to determine, say, the names of streets and certain landmark businesses in Lawrence, KS. But then other basic things were really overlooked. For example, an American would never say "I just got out of hospital." They'd say, "I just got out of the hospital." I know it's small but it really sounds strange to an American ear. Also, there's no such thing as the Kansas Police Department. Here, it's the [City] Police Department (so, in this case, Lawrence Police Department) or the [State} Bureau of Investigation (Kansas Bureau of Investigation).
Like I said, the story was great but I, personally, really struggled to stick with the story when I kept getting distracted by these little things.
It felt like there was a lot of research done to determine, say, the names of streets and certain landmark businesses in Lawrence, KS. But then other basic things were really overlooked. For example, an American would never say "I just got out of hospital." They'd say, "I just got out of the hospital." I know it's small but it really sounds strange to an American ear. Also, there's no such thing as the Kansas Police Department. Here, it's the [City] Police Department (so, in this case, Lawrence Police Department) or the [State} Bureau of Investigation (Kansas Bureau of Investigation).
Like I said, the story was great but I, personally, really struggled to stick with the story when I kept getting distracted by these little things.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Gun violence
Minor: Pedophilia