Fred Runk (1:300/105) wrote to Steven Horn at 17:57 on 27 Oct 1997:
 FR> Some of my contemporary favorites are PD James, Anne Perry, William
 FR> Bayers, and Elizabeth George--Martha Grimes also, Ellis Peters,
 FR> Davies? (Falco, the Roman PI during the time of Augustus Caesar).
I like P.D. James, Ellis Peters and Elizabeth George, have mixed feelings 
about Anne Perry, and have not read William Bayers or Martha Grimes.  And 
I've read only one of the Falco books.
 FR> I just finished Perry's CAIN HIS BROTHER and found that the most
 FR> disappointing  of her Inspt. Monk series--guess Inspector is no
 FR> longer accurate.
 FR> Anyway, there are large holes in the logic, and I think she
 FR> cheated.  I had figured out the solution early on, but two "facts"
 FR> made that solution impossible.  As it turned out, on the last page
 FR> or so, we are told one of those facts didn't exist while the other
 FR> one we had to assume was a lie by a character.
 FR> There is no rationale for what happened, or why it happened--it
 FR> just did. Oh well, the earlier books were very satisfying, so I
 FR> will shrug this one off and go on.  As it is, I found her latest in
 FR> WallyBooks, so I will go around with W. Monk at least once more.
It's been some time since I read CAIN and I admit that I had misgivings 
because what I thought was the solution had been made impossible.  And while 
I don't mind the assertion of non-existent facts, there should be a clue to 
the effect that appearance is not reality.  Similarly, if a character is 
likely to lie, one can expect some statement to that effect.
But what I dislike more about Perry is that her characters don't develop.  P. 
D. James, on the other hand, is superb in that area -- while reading her work 
centered around the nuclear powerplant at Larksoken, I was tremendously 
impressed at the development of the characters.  I particularly remember the 
admin assistant who turns out to be a German-recruited terrorist.
Take care,
Steven Horn (shorn@yknet.yk.ca)
Moderator CAN_SYSLAW 
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