D. Ann Kelley

Very meh. The plot was convoluted and contrived - they somehow decided that tossing UFOs, two separated family branches, a psychic, a (theoretically) worthless stolen item and a lighthouse into what otherwise might have been a fairly standard murder plot was a good idea - and the punchlines are entirely too predictable. By page 150 I knew how the rest was going to play out, and they never disappointed me in that respect. Ironically, if they had cut about half the characters, spent less time on meaningless dialogue and notes on how, when and how much a structure cost when it was built and ditched the UFO section in the beginning (which has no bearing whatsoever on the overall plot) they might have come out with a somewhat competent book.

Aside from the plot, the characters feel rather one-dimensional and cartoony. Nobody breaks out of their little cardboard box, so carefully hemmed in by stereotypes (the town bicycle, the New Girl in Town with a Tragic Past, the former Football Hero Gone Astray... you've seen them all before) that they lose any ability to surprise or interest you within three pages of their introduction.

The biggest obstacle to enjoying this book was the technical aspects, however. I'm often told I am perhaps too much of a stickler for such things, and I know everyone has their "oopsies" from time to time, but this thing is just a bloody mess. They can't decide what tense to use, often switching several times in the course of a single paragraph, mismatching their adverbs and adjectives while doing it. They can't seem to settle down into a narrative voice; they'll go along for several pages in a standard third-person, then suddenly switch to omniscient with little warning and only the pronouns to tell us we're now in someone else's head. Quotation marks are used sporadically, often leaving the reader to assume what part of a given sentence was what was actually said, are often nested (three times over, in one section), or used randomly on chunks of text that are obviously actions or description. The vocabulary feels very limited, with frequent repetitions of a single word in a given paragraph; just as frequent are repetitions of a chunk of text (IE: She turned to the left as Quinn watched. Turning to the left, she said "..." Quinn nodded as she turned to the left and listened.) I get that she turned left, thanks; unless she was pacing in circles to her left, I don't think it needs to be said three times. There are other, less potentially misread passages (picking up a roll of pennies, getting in a car, opening a purse) but the turning one just really stuck with me and was potentially the worst offender.

As I said above, with some significant trimming of the cast and irrelevant detail (and quite a bit of TLC from a copy-editor) this might have a decent story buried inside. As it stands, though... No. Just no.… (altro)