Book Review: A NOVEL CRIME

Title: A Novel Crime

Author: Deborah Levison

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Pages: 332

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Marcy Jo Codburn has done everything to become a famous romance novelist, including manifesting success and writing five chapters of a novel that isn’t heading anywhere. She dreams of a successful career under the pseudonym, Summer Branigan. Her day job as a realtor isn’t going well either. Even her college-going daughter Bea considers her father, Marcy’s ex-husband Kevin, her favourite parent.

When Francesca Barber, the most successful novelist in America, embarks on a multi-city tour, Marcy and her three writing group mates decide to go see her. When Marcy catches Francesca making out with Tabi Benlolo, the Portuguese star of the movie version of Francesca’s books and the husband of her daughter Aspen, Francesca thinks Marcy has clicked a picture of them, and offers to help with Marcy’s manuscript.

Suddenly, Marcy’s life is looking up. Francesca is reading her manuscript and she has a potentially lucrative listing. It’s possible that Marcy might make a success as both a novelist and as a realtor, as long as she puts in the hard work required.

But then Marcy gets greedy. Leveraging Francesca’s secret, she wonders why she should work hard at her goal, when she could get the famous novelist to do the writing for her. As the collaboration gets underway, more secrets surface, amid a tangle of looming deadlines and an attempted kidnap that creates its own set of problems. Will Marcy ever see the success she craves? If yes, at what cost?

 

The story is written in the first-person present tense PoV of Marcy.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

I love books about books, authors and writing, so that part was interesting.

Neither of the female main characters here, Marcy/Summer and Francesca, are likeable or even morally sound. We don’t understand whether they deserve our sympathy or derision, but it doesn’t matter. The plot is the real hero here, and events happen at such a crazy pace that all you can do is sit back and enjoy the ride. This story is certainly madness and chaos unleashed. In a very good way. Everything that can go wrong does.

There is a sub-plot about Marcy trying to improve her relationship with her daughter and to present herself as a better role model for her.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

I wasn’t sure how I felt about Marcy. Sometimes, I liked her; mostly I didn’t.

I dislike characters throwing food into the trash, and that happens here. Granted that Marcy wants to start eating healthy, but she should have considered donating the food, instead of trashing it.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

The set-up took very long. Or felt very long.

Strangely, Francesca doesn’t ever ask to see the incriminating photo. Which is a major loophole in the reasoning behind the plot.

The scene in which Bea explains her project to her mother, repeating it for our benefit, was boring.

At one point, Bea yells out that she and Kevin are vegetarian. That is an error. It should have been Bea and Patrick, her boyfriend, who are vegetarian.

ALL SAID AND DONE:

I enjoyed the madness in this book. 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: THE WRITER'S JOURNEY: IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE LITERARY GREATS

Title: The Writer's Journey: In the Footsteps of the Literary Greats

Author: Travis Elborough

Publisher: White Lion Publishing

Pages: 343

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

I loved the premise of this book. The role of the journey and its potential for amassing research about character, description and settings alike as well as its potential for offering a fresh perspective.

Many of the writers included in these pages have uncovered a new story or book, or even a new career as a writer, from their journeys.

Of course, it’s written from a Western lens, so the author tells us about the dangers of dying of dysentery, cholera etc. Also, most of the writers are either American or European.

Incidentally, JK Rowling, the only living author, among deceased writers, most of whom lived in earlier centuries, was out of place. The criteria for choosing authors to feature in the book remains unclear.

The layout of the book is designed like a tabloid, with a long headline, mostly alliterative, and a sketch of the writer’s face in monochrome. Below this masthead are small icons of the mode of transportation employed by the writer, followed by the text in double column. The text is interspersed with maps, aerial photos of the location etc.

The writers are included in alphabetical order, which led to a sense of disconnect between the chapters.

The purpose behind each writer’s journey is varied:

Holiday/Outing: Hans Christian Andersen, Bram Stoker, Virginia Woolf

Son’s education: Maya Angelou

Sent by a publication: WH Auden and Christopher Isherwood, Zora Neale Hurston

Research: Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens

Write a travel book: Graham Greene

Work: Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville, JK Rowling

Recuperation: Jane Austen, Elizabeth Bishop, Gustave Flaubert, Federico Garcia Lorca

Escaping from danger: James Baldwin

To improve his character: Charles Baudelaire

Travel and adventure: Basho aka Matsuo Kinsaku, Jack Kerouac, Katherine Mansfield

 

The reasons I found most interesting were those of:

Lewis Carroll: went to Russia to build bridges with the Eastern Orthodox Church

Arthur Conan Doyle: went to Switzerland to get an idea for killing the character of Sherlock Holmes.

F Scott Fitzgerald: went to Paris because the cost of living was cheaper there than in the US.

Jack London: went to the Yukon to take advantage of the Gold rush.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery: took on the Transcontinental Flying Race.

Sam Selvon: went to London to fulfil his literary ambitions. 

The book doesn’t really spell out how the location led to the writing, just that here’s place A which was written about in book B. I would have liked something more detailed.

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)