The List by J. A. Konrath


★

Since I am new to blogging and book review, I am acquiring some of my books from giveaways. I won this particular book from Goodreads where they request an honest review from winners. They may regret that.

Mr. Konrath has a good imagination. He has dreamed up a circumstance that could have been the seed of a terrific science fiction novel. However, instead of drawing us into deeper and deeper levels of curiosity and suspense, he discloses the secret around page fifty. Worse, as this stunningly unbelievable twist is disclosed to the main character, he accepts it as truth after a few sentences of dubious explanation. 

That brings us to my main problem with this book. Virtually nothing about this book is plausible. I don't mean plausible in the sense of science fiction. That always requires suspension of disbelief. I mean the actions of the characters are so unreliable as to be ridiculous. Potential murder victims run back toward a maniacal killer to retrieve collectible trinkets. Police officers have shoot outs at a crowed hotel without bothering to call for assistance or even an investigation afterward; they simply leave and move on to the next chase scene. Consistently, every single character jokes about everything. Mortally wounded? Crack a joke. Running from a killer? Crack a joke. Novels containing an element of action often insert a character like this for some comic relief amidst the harsher elements of the story. A good novelist uses this device sparingly. Here there is scarcely a paragraph that is without it. They are not even clever jokes. They are Dad Jokes.

If there is a silver lining to this dark little cloud it is this: If you are an aspiring writer and feel as if you cannot live up to a reader's expectations, consider this: Mr. Konrath has written a number of books in this genre and this book happens to score a rating of 3.66 on Goodreads. Impressive considering that some award winning books haven't scored much higher. 

I gave up on this book at page ninety-one. One star and that's generous. 

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