***100 Days of Summer Reading 2023***
Reading Prompt: Book written by an Australian author
Virtual 12 sided dice roll: 9
What an interesting structure Gentill used for this mystery! Is it a good thing or a bad thing that I'm focused on the structure rather than the solution? But that's what captured my attention and what fooled me completely regarding the identity of the murderer.
Each chapter represents a chapter about Winifred (Freddie) who is writing a murder mystery. For some unknown reason, the fictional author, Hannah, shares each chapter with a writing acquaintance, Leo (presumably by email). Each chapter is ended with Leo's comments and assessments, plus some strong opinions. We never get to read Hannah's side of this correspondence, only her manuscript. As the book progresses, we realize that Leo is not exactly who we are originally led to believe he was. It's very meta, as I'm having a hard time remembering that Hannah is the purported author, rather than Freddie. An author, writing about an author who is writing about an author. It's authors all the way down. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Leo has written a manuscript too, as yet unpublished.
I found that these missives from Leo were really muddying the waters for me. Especially since Hannah also introduces him as a character for Freddie to interact with (something that seems to delight the “real" Leo). His presence distracted me from the real issues, led me around by the nose, and meant that I was as surprised as anyone when the big reveal happened.
This novel was chosen by a subset of my regular mystery book club. The book shop that hosts the club takes the summer off from that event, so we are meeting at a nearby café. We're a group of opinionated people, so I expect the discussion to be lively!
No comments:
Post a Comment