Genre: Mystery
2 Stars
The first thing wrong with this book is the beginning. The author has (literally) drawn pictures of the characters, along with mini-bios. I thought the idea of a book was to describe the characters, and allow you to picture them in your own mind as you see them. As a matter of fact, none of the 'drawn characters' fit their later descriptions in the book; (i.e., the drawing of Phoebe looks a lot older than she is supposed to be in the book). It really spoils the enjoyment of reading. Note to author: You can leave in the bios, but eliminate the pictures. Allow the reader to have the enjoyment of 'seeing' the characters themselves.
I suppose she could have done this for two reasons: 1) She wanted to save herself time in having to describe the characters so just decided to give the information beforehand; or 2) She knew what the characters looked like in HER mind and wanted the reader to have that view. Of course, I could be wrong on both counts and there may have been another reason to do so. It's been said that Margaret Mitchell had Clark Gable in mind when she wrote Gone With the Wind. I don't know if it's true or not, but I do know that she didn't draw pictures of him inside the book and take away the pleasure the reader has in 'seeing' how the characters look to her. For me, that's a big turn-off and takes away my pleasure at reading the book.
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