Analysis of a Series Writer - An Opinion And a Quandry Considered - Seeking MY Reader Thoughts!

Note: I've included this reading video for some of you. I do not read with music...LOL 

I buy all of my books now, sometimes they are free, sometimes not. The main reason is that I am no longer able to easily read printed books and review them... so I've had to make many adjustments requiring ebooks now... Like giving to charity all the TBR books I had on shelves that I knew I would never now read...

I've joined BookBub which provides discounted or free books daily... Now that they have the ability to post reviews, it has allowed me to be more active there... But, this is not a recommendation for the site... I've discovered that there is a cost for authors, so I recommend authors do a search of the site and decide. A number of reviews can be found on YouTube, FYI... For me, it's been many years since I actually accepted a book review request from authors (if you have a book you'd like me to review, tell me the name of your book and I'll check it out... If I think I'd like it, I'll buy the book to provide a verified purchase review on Amazon--I consider this payback for all the free books I've received over the 20 years I've been reviewing) other than those I've been working with for years and feel a personal commitment to--because I love their books! On the other hand, I've also enjoyed finding and reading authors that I'd never read before... So this works for me at this time...

Often during these days of such chaos in America, I withdraw into books to escape... I recently picked up a book and later discovered it was the second book in a series... I fell in love with the book and immediately moved on to the third and fourth book...and finished the series except for the first book.

“A brilliant book. I couldn’t put it down and I never guessed who the murderer was!”
—Reader review for Only Murder
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

But by then, I had been startled to realize what I considered a major breach of the norm for anybody reading or writing mysteries... I was so shocked that it continued to happen in the four books I read. Then I had to decide, do I go back and read the first book, even though... But, let me start at the beginning and close this part with the Quandry I faced...

Should I rank the book(s) based upon this breach? I decided that, even though many book sites have a way to designate reviews that give away information that shouldn't occur--why would reviewers be punished if the author is the one that did it, I wondered... But I had loved the books, even with this breach... I decided that I needed to give the ranking I felt about the books, as opposed to what the writer had done... Let me know in comments whether I should have changed my public ranking based upon this issue... in your opinion...meant for a discussion as opposed to anything else... Here's what happened... I did decide not to write my usual reviews for these books, other than today's post, well, just because...

I bought this book...

This is the second book in a series. It is listed as the favorite (probably because it is still free?)

The main character is a professional restorer of art pieces. She goes into the homes, normally of the rich and famous--those who can afford such pieces for their homes. What makes them mysteries is that, during the work on the painting, something is discovered that is, somtimes within the picture itself, or is found in some other way. In essence, the main character becomes the amateur detective in all cases, and persists until discovering and solving the mystery. I loved the concept of merging mysteries within the art world and having a restorer of older paintings needing some type of work be the one that discovers, even cold cases, and solves them...

I bought the remaining books at regular cost as they were numbered in the series... But then I noticed a name being used as part of a main character flashback...

It happened again...

It was, I later confirmed, the murderer in the very first book... Do you get the point? If not, scroll back up to read a short blurb review which was used over and over in each of these books...

The reviewer proudly didn't guess who the killer was and that helped them give 5 stars... In fact, I do just the opposite, I applaud when I was unable to guess in advance of the actual naming that the author had succeeded in allowing me the pleasure of assuring my readers that this mystery was so good, that, "even I, LOL" did not guess the villain of the mystery! After all, isn't that part of the mystery and the enjoyment for mystery readers? Surely, everybody knows that??? But, here

the writer has used the actual murderer's name in referring to the flashbacks of the main character!

Ok, I don't know about you, but I was shocked.

Now realize, that I'm somewhat of an expert in picking up errors of content in books... So, at this point I had only made an assumption that, indeed, the author had revealed the name of the villain of the first book, within later books...

Am I the ONLY reader that has purchased a book, that later is discovered to be a series and buy all the others to know the whole story? But, did I want to go back and pick up The Unknown Woman to verify that, indeed, I was right in my assumption about the author's, in my mind unforgivable error?

Of course I had to...

I began to read the first book. Frankly I noticed a difference in the writing immediately. Ok, this was first in series and maybe the writer's first in series was written more to set up the series. Let me tell you what I mean... In the other four books, the main character is totally in control of telling her story. She's in her element--her expertise of being able to correct any problem, which included, by the way, the repair/restoration of a painting where somebody had thrown paint on the painting! In any event, the fludity of the last four books, the meticulous activities of the main character pulled this reader to turn pages, moving through the book(s) one right after the other, as if it was one book, rather than four...

Going back to the first in series, I found the first book where the author was in control. The writing was stilted as, seemingly, she was getting the mechanics of her new series down sufficiently so that she could move on to the next book... If I had read it first, I would not have caught this since I would not have been reading the first book after all of the others...

This author has written other series, so this was not her first. Perhaps all of her readers get a notice that another of her series is starting and they buy the first book first... I can tell you from experience that the average reader is moving from writer to writer and rarely knows or remembers whether they have even read the book before. Unless they are specifically told that the book being placed on sale is actually second in a series and we should make sure that we read the series in order to avoid being told the name of the villain that is identified in book 1...

Readers! Pop Quiz... Do you buy a book based upon author or genre? My answer is genre...

If it is a series, do you buy a book on sale, even if you don't know it is a series in advance? In this case, I did not know it was a series so I bought it. Hey, it was free, I normally can't resist a free book from anywhere...LOL If I really hate it, I can feel free to delete an ebook or send a paperback to charity...Unless a book has been damaged, I never throw a book away...

I also hate book banning... just so you know... We all are free to be in a democracy (except now)!

Bottomline, I did confirm that the villain who was named as a killer in flashbacks by the main character in later books was actually correct as being the killer of the first in series book. Now the author could have created the flashback without actually using the name of the killer and the emotional impact of her first emotionally charged event could have still been felt by readers. The names are normally irrelevant in a book unless they are primary characters--at least once the book has been read.

So, why did this author choose to use the actual name in a flashback scene? To me, the reader, I don't really care. It might have been standard for this author. It may have been an oversight--a mistake... Or maybe she really didn't consider that each book should be considered free-standing in all cases so that the reader can choose whether to read the entire series or not, at least in my opinion... Because, you see, my opinion does count... I am the only one who will decide whether I add this author to my mental list of writers I'll be willing to read again... Or NOT... What I do know is that, I loved four out of five books in this series and, if this breach of norms had not occurred, I would probably have been willing to read her further. I am not now that individual. I once told an author that each typo in a book jars my attention... Writing back he cringed. Then I went on to say that each superflous vulgar term hurts me... He crossed me off his list...

Except I bought the book myself, read it. I thought it was satire and enjoyed it. It wasn't meant to be a satire; the author hated my thoughts. LOL

Words matter. What every writer must realize early, unless they are writing for their own enjoyment or a diary, is that everybody who reads their writing will be a fan or a critic Based UPON What They Read... This was his first book. I advised him to start reading, since his storyline seemed to be based on television programs or movies, rather than continuing to write first... That's about all I could do...

So, my Blog readers, next question of your quiz. If you realized that the author of a series had given away the name of a villain in another of the series books, would you blackball the writer for the future like I did? No, it won't change my opinion, but it may influence me whether I contact the writer or not in the future. And, yes, I did love the concept and the main character... Seeing a series villain's name in a flashback--No, can't accept that! 

But this was my personal opinion, I did rank based upon the overall quality of the books... What would you have done?

GABixlerReviews