Slipknot, by Linda Greenlaw

[subplotkudzu]

I just finished this, Linda Greenlaw's first attempt at fiction. Don't get me wrong - I like Greenlaw. I'm impressed by her life story and her non-fiction tales of various aspects of the fishing industry have been informative, fun reads. All that said, there's a reason why I called the book her first attempt at fiction. It was an act of will to finish the book, and it serves as a good reminder of how good my other authors are at this fiction thing.

I'll accept that her ex-fisherwoman is also an ex-Miami homicide detective who has left the police to work as an insurance investigator in coastal Maine because she is trying for a murder mystery but wants to stick to what she knows. The retried professional detective in the new career does come across as a cliche of the modern detective novel, but I can accept that - I run Cliche Ridden Feng Shui after all. However,  the plot is insanely overcomplicated, with enough excess conspiracy to fuel 3 books heaped on like barnacles slowing down what could be a legitimate mystery for an insurance inspector.

And the writing is crappy. The character's first person past tense internal monologue is replete with a whole lotta excess "tell" while the narrative has very little in the way of "show". Her style works pretty well when she's writing non-fiction about her own experiences, but she hasn't learned any of the ways to write fiction, and it shows. A shame, but it makes me very happy I just got it out of the library rather than buy it. For any mystery fans out there, this is one to skip. She's set things up for a sequel of course, so we'll have to see if this level of writing is acceptable to the mainstream mystery fan. I hope not, so that Greenlaw can go back to the writing she's good at.