A few weeks ago I was listening to "Book Club Girl's" BlogTalk Radio show and she was interviewing Emily Gray Tedrowe about her book "Commuters". I book I've read and reviewed earlier.
Well, in the course of the interview Emily mentioned how she found it odd more author's didn't write about their characters reading and I believe she also talked about how they didn't talk about other books or authors in their books. I had to agree with her. I always find it weird that characters don't read or talk about books and authors they like. Sometimes I think they may be afraid readers may think "Holy Cow, that sounds like a better book" and run back to the books store to exchange the book they're reading for the book mentioned in the novel. Now, I'm sure that is not really the case. (Well, maybe it is in some cases) But gosh, come on you're a writer shouldn't some of you characters read?
I think on of the things I like best about Carolyn Hart's Death on Demand series is not only does her main character read (after all she does run a mystery book store) she mentions authors, book titles, and even characters in the books. I will admit I'm caught off guard when she mentions herself but it does make sense since she's a pretty popular mystery author and she would be a big seller in a mystery book store.
Anyway "Southern Ghost" was one of her middling Annie and Max Darling mysteries. The set up of a missing girl didn't work for me. While the main mystery - a murder and suicide that occurred 20+ years earlier was a good one - the solution came together rather quickly and seemed a bit disconnected from the investigation they had done. Really it was solved by another character in the story which I didn't mind but you missed her investigation so the conclusion was a little forced. But I do really like these characters and the location of the story so I really did enjoy the book overall.
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