Reviewed by Chris Longmuir
It was curiosity that led me to
this book. Why? Because It is a crime novel written by twenty six different
crime writers, all of them best sellers, and many of them my favourite authors.
When I discovered the book it set me wondering what kind of novel a multitude
of writers would produce, and how would each author's style contribute to the
whole when there was such a variety of writing styles.
It is fair to say I read this book
in a different way. Normally I would engross myself in the story, not
interesting myself in stylistic issues, unless of course they grated. However,
with this book I was conscious of each author's style and was giving
consideration to how these contributed to the story, and was it in any way
detrimental.
There were, of course, differences
in style, although these were not obtrusive, and the story flowed well from the
start. However, I was astonished when I noticed at least two of these authors
indulged in head hopping in all of their scenes.
The story focuses round a woman
who was executed for the murder of her husband ten years previously. The cop
(it's set in the U.S.) is convinced she was innocent and sets out to look for
the evidence to prove it. The book features an intriguing set of characters,
and although they are well developed I found it difficult to relate to any of
them, perhaps because the development was being done by different writers. Some
characters appeared in the early part of the book and then vanished, again
probably due to the way the book was being written. But the storyline was good
and the plot well developed with each writer following on from where the
previous writer had left off. The style of each chapter did vary a bit with
some chapters passive and others so pacy it made my heart thump. But there was
nothing so different that if I'd been reading the book in a different way would
have caused me to stop reading.
My verdict? I like the book, I
liked the story, and as an experiment in writing I would say it was successful.
Chris Longmuir
Get the book at Amazon.co.uk
or
Amazon.com
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