Exchange

Well, I tried with that Cornwell book - Trace. I couldn't do it. Not 5 pages in and perspective was shifting from third person, to second, to kind of first, and then back again. I found myself rereading sentences for construction and flow, and feeling myself lost.

So, it was time to lose the book. I am over the guilt of reading a book all the way through that is like punishment from the get go. I have come to terms with the fact there are some books I don't need to read in this lifetime. Like finishing Tolstoy's War and Peace, or Zen and the Art of Motorcylcle Maintenance. I get so far in those books and my mind drifts and the next think I know months have passed and those books have vamoosed off of my side table.

Trace in hand, I wandered down to my local used bookshop, and traded that book flop for Michael Connelly's The Narrows. This is a follow up to the Poet, which I thought was a damn fine suspense story that was technical and filled with intriguing characters. There were a few gripping twists and turns that have stayed with me, even though I read that book about a year ago.

Now this is a good way to spend a few hours rather than stumbling over bad diction and schlocking development. Which is a shame since I really enjoyed the early Scarpetta novels like Cruel and Unusual and Body of Evidence, while my interest started to wane after I had blitzed through 5 of Cornwall's novels, looking for different characters and writing style. Maybe it was my mood, maybe it was the writing. Anyhoo, I am off to dive between the covers : ]