July 30, 2008

Fatal Deduction by Gayle Roper

I won this book and decided to give it a try. The plot sounds interesting enough. It was a good choice for a relaxing weekend before diving back into my classwork.

Fatal Deduction contains the story about a pair of twins. The responsible, mommy-type, Libby, and the carefree, money-spending Tori. Because of a stipulation in the will of their great aunt, they are required to move in together, with Libby's 12yo daughter, into her downtown Philly house for 6 months though they rarely get along. And that's when things start happening. The second day she is there, Libby finds a dead body on her stoop, with a note with her sister's name on it and a crossword puzzle.

Okay, the plot of this book is excellent. She's a pretty good writer, and it's quite entertaining. The problem I have is with the point of view. She changes from 1st person (Libby's point of view) to following the other characters in 3rd person. Yikes! This is maddening and felt to me like nails on a chalkboard. Have other authors done this? I don't know, but if they have, I haven't known it. In this instance every time she would switch back to 1st person and say "I..." I would think "what? who?" before I realized she did it again.

I don't know if it was just me, but I wasn't used to that. Maybe I'm just used to an author referring to themselves in 1st person, as a narrator (very common in classics). If the switching of the person won't bother you too much, then check this book out. If it will bother you, let it pass.

I'm going to giveaway my (used) copy of the book to the first person who is interested in it. Just leave a comment stating that you want it, and I'll get back to you about it.

3 comments:

  1. Sure, I'll read it! It sounds intereresting!

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  2. I've seen this one at our library, but I wasn't sure if it would be good or not. If you liked it, that means it has to be good! :-)

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  3. The plot sounds interesting, but the shifting POV would drive me batty.

    --Anna (Diary of an Eccentric)

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