Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

I picked up this book because it was getting a lot of positive buzz. There were a couple of other books/series out at the same time and when that happens, it’s always exciting.

I really really like this. Stevenson is a great writer and it can be a balancing act but I enjoyed the way he wrote witty banter that kept things moving.

The idea of the book is at once familiar and fresh. He is writing a mystery while comparing it to classic genre tropes. That’s fair as it seems every mystery is indebted to Agatha Christie and all who came after and that’s fun. (It probably isn’t as original as it sounds. That’s the plot of the Scream movies isn’t it?)

(Also lest we forget, the “everyone has killed� line is a great hook and of course makes one think of “And Then There Were None�)

Weirdly the least interesting part was the whodunit. It’s a great setup and decent action scenes and it’s all tied up in the end, but I never really felt that invested in who was doing what.

There are possible explanations. Stevenson is so good at the other elements. There are a lot of characters and that is good for possibilities but is a lot for the reader to take in ( it sounds like this will be a HBO series or movie and in that element, it likely will be amazing). But mostly I think it gets overcomplicated when it may have been better to keep it simple. ( I read a few mysteries so i understand the trick of not making it too simple. In any case in an audio/visual context, it will likely be better).

I will definitely check out the next book in the series which is getting positive buzz. We will see if Stevenson works out some of the things that bring his writing down, but even if he doesn’t, his snappy ability to tell a story with smart wit will be probably enough for me to continue on.