I know, I know, we're not supposed to choose books according to what they look like on the outside, but realistically, we sometimes do anyways.
Publishers today have gotten with the program, for the most part, right? I mean, with older books, like the original versions of Terry Pratchett Discworld series, with their off-putting cartoons - there's nothing we can do now.
But new books, really? Look at this crop:
Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran This one is the best of this list - an actual original in the realm of mystery fiction. It also has the worst cover (what's up with the badly-drawn parrot?). Set in post-Katrina New Orleans and featuing a smart, hip, tough but also intuitive private investigator, this is, as one reviewer put it: funky noir. Really well written and alternatively gritty and trippy (she uses dreams, the I Ching and drug trips as investigation tools), I can only hope this is the first of what will become a series.
Sally Sin by Beth McMullen This cover isn't so much bad as incongruous. I expected it to be a mad-cap, wacky story a la Janet Evanovich, but instead I got a more serious (still with funny moments) tale of a woman, trained as a spy, trying to put her past behind her while protecting her son from harm. It had involved some suspension of disbelief - would her husband really not ask more about her past? - but it also engaged us in questions about how to turn a new leaf, how to make new friends, and how to make real changes to an interior world. Now, make some changes to the cover, pronto!
Our Lady of Immaculate Deception by Nancy Martin Every time I put this out on the Staff Recommendations display, it is the last book standing! This one is a mad-cap, wacky book with a gutsy, take-no-prisoners single mom named Roxy who has mob connections and a salvage business. It's fun and fast-paced and a good escapist mystery. And this book cover, at least, has a happy ending - the publishers have since re-issued it under a different cover and title: check out the new and improved Foxy Roxy.
Comments
The Complaints
Written in 2009 by a master of crime fiction, Ian Rankin, this excellent story of intrigue is set in Edinburgh (sans Rebus). The problem I had with it was the use of the local slang. I came from the UK way back when, and watch a lot of Brit TV series, so I'm reasonably in touch with the street lingo. Several times I was stumped by terms new to me and I had to refer to the Oxford English Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary of Slang, but without success. Nor was the Wikipedia slang page of any help. OK, I could assume a meaning from the context, but such distractions interfere with the flow of the story. (I'd have as much luck trying to understand rap music slang!)
Life would be so much better if only authors or their editors would append a glossary - as I had to when I wrote technical manuals.
Good Job
That was a very good comment.