Crime & Mystery
I’ve got a soft spot for crime books that don’t behave like crime books. Without a Clue is one of those odd little pleasures: a whodunit with rom-com energy, which sounds like it should wobble, but mostly just keeps moving.
That matters to me more than people pretending genre is sacred. If the pace is sharp and the ending lands, I’ll forgive a lot. If it’s clever but drifts off at the finish, that’s where the goodwill goes. Books don’t get points for nearly working.
That matters to me more than people pretending genre is sacred. If the pace is sharp and the ending lands, I’ll forgive a lot. If it’s clever but drifts off at the finish, that’s where the goodwill goes. Books don’t get points for nearly working.
The wobble is usually in the tonal handbrake, not the premise. Crime plus rom-com can work fine if it knows which bit is driving at any given moment.
What puts me off is when the mystery gets treated like decorative scaffolding. I can live with a lighter touch, but I still want the clues to matter and the ending to earn itself. Otherwise it’s just banter in a deckchair.
What puts me off is when the mystery gets treated like decorative scaffolding. I can live with a lighter touch, but I still want the clues to matter and the ending to earn itself. Otherwise it’s just banter in a deckchair.