i really thought that March would be over and I wouldn't be writing about Yet Another Deadly Book. i thought that enough was enough and now I'd start reading some good stuff. it was that or continue my "BJ Oliphant" reading frenzy. (damn they were good.)

But here we go. Again. Within the first EIGHT pages of a new mystery novel, i encountered two stoppers. One is a sign of lazy writing and I don't understand why an author can't work around it. But here we go, encountering a character who is described as looking like a famous person. Can't you at least TRY to describe her features without resorting to that? In a few years, it's possible this person won't be that well-known. What happens in 10 or 20 years when someone reads your book and has NO friggin' idea who that was?

The other stopper just bugs the CRAP out of me as part of my campaign to end writing protagonists who are DOORMATS.

I hate (if you have heard this screed from me, my sincere apologies) protagonists who never stand up for themselves*. This trend overwhelming involves female protagonists. these are women who don't want to do something but are brow-beaten, nagged, pushed or whined at until they drop everything and help the ex-husband, until they get involved in planning something, driving hours out of the way, helping with something, taking care of something they DO NOT WANT TO DO, but they do it anyway. I HATE THIS. A lot. It is often the excuse for involving the amateur sleuth in a mystery. "They think I killed her. You GOTTA help me." and often, because "you figured out who killed that guy" it's used as a way to involve the amateur in an ongoing series when it's unlikely that the person would other solve a murder.

Alas, it is often used just as "color" too. In this book, the person is not the sort of person who is comfortable doing certain things in public. We get that, sure. But her best friend, who has dragged her to things before that she did not enjoy, is brow-beating her into taking a class she does not want to take. And our protagonist realizes that the best friend had already signed her up for the class at which point the best friend, studies her manicure.

(*One fabulous example of how this was turned on its head belongs to the wonderful jeff Abbott in his first Jordy Poteet mystery. Read these if you haven't. I think they were all paperback originals and really refreshing and well done.)

I hate this doormat syndrome almost as much as I hate mysteries that have prologues where you "see" the murder and it ends with "and then everything went black" or "oh, it's you!" or "there was a sharp pain and then nothing". I HATE that a lot. Yes, indeedy.

How did this happen? is it really that no editors mind this? Do they not see it? Does it really sell books?

I don't like this protagonist already and we're still in Chapter One,, dammit. I got this book to review and was truly hoping for a new treat. I needed something new to read and there it was, on top of the stack, so okay. The story looks at least intriguing. But two stoppers by page eight? It's going to be iffy. There are other books calling for my attention and i don't know how much more i will read in this disappointing first mystery.