Sunday 16 June 2013

Read in 2013 - 17: Murder by Nightmare

A slightly misleading title, since no-one is really murdered "by nightmare" in this novelette. The nightmare element in the story is, instead, just what it is: nightmares the heroine is suffering from (and they don't really have much to do with the entire story).


I found this short murder mystery by Jennette Green for free on the Kindle shop, and I'm afraid I have to say that it would have been a bad idea to actually pay for it. Neither the writing style nor the plot are particularly good; I did not learn enough about the main character to really care about what was happening to her, or to her neighbours (one of them gets murdered, another one attacked). 

On the author's home page, the summary for "Murder by Nightmare" reads:
May has never liked to be alone at night, because that's when nightmares haunt her.
However, when her husband leaves for the weekend, she's certain she'll be safe home alone in their suburban neighborhood. But when the man next door is attacked, and the woman across the street is murdered, her life begins to take on a nightmarish quality. Who is behind the attacks? Will the nightmares ever end? 
All that sounds like it could make for a suspense-filled evening, tucked up cosily in bed with my Kindle and some chocolate. Instead, what I found was some very illogical behaviour from both the heroine and her neighbours, descriptions that did not lend any credibility to neither characters nor story, and me ending up only caring for Marmalade, May's ginger cat (nothing happens to him, I can tell you that without spoiling the story for you).

I can almost hear my sister's reasonable voice, telling me that I shouldn't expect any better with all the free downloads from the Kindle shop. Well, I've had some really good reads come my way through this method. This novelette wasn't one of them.

4 comments:

  1. Some are free because great writers are trying to gain enough of an audience to get paid work. Some are free because they are no longer under copyright. The rest, as you've found, are free because they really weren't that good anyway. When i run into one of those, i quit reading after the first or second chapter.

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    1. It was short enough to be over quickly, so it was almost like quitting after the first few chapters anyway.

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  2. The very title is enough to put me off. I have enough nightmares without reading about them too.

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    Replies
    1. ...and plenty of good books waiting for you that are much more worth your time.

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