Sunday, October 12, 2008
I'd Kill for That
*** I'd Kill for That, by Gayle Lynds, Rita Mae Brown, Marcia Talley (who also edited), Lisa Gardner, Linda Fairstein, Kay Hooper, Kathy Reichs, Julie Smith, Heather Graham, Jennifer Crusie, Tina Wainscott, Anne Perry, & Katherine Neville. Mystery.
This is another of those serial novels, like Naked Came the Phoenix.
It's a murder mystery set in a gated community that's in an uproar over a proposed condo development nearby. As with any tightly-knit community, it's a hotbed of intrigue: all those different characters, each with their own foibles, secrets, and agendas. And it's up to police captain Diane Robards to sort it all out and discover which secrets are criminal.
If you're looking for a well-crafted murder mystery, this isn't it. Like Naked Came the Phoenix, each of the authors has her own vision of where the story should go, so it changes with each chapter. And some of the authors carefully incorporate previous authors' developments into their chapters while others gleefully disregard any developments that don't gibe with their vision. And there are also a couple of twists that seem designed to make things more complicated for the subsequent authors.
Reading it on that level--noticing the various authors' styles and how each one changed the story--it's fun and entertaining. And I expect it was a heck of a lot of fun to write.
I'm not sorry I read it, and I won't hesitate to read another serial novel, but it's definitely a one-read book for me, and only a keeper to make my Crusie collection complete.
Categories: Books, 3stars, Mystery
Labels: 3 stars, books, mystery
