Play Book Tag discussion

I loved the 10 commandments of Detective Fiction Rules that were given at the beginning of the book and I think all mystery writers should read and follow these rules. Throughout the book I kept finding myself flipping back to that first page to double check that he can’t break his own rule that he said he would follow.

I also enjoyed how it seemed like the character was talking to the reader. He also talks about playing fair but somehow always seems to trick you which I love hating the author for. He's also playful with talking about page numbers and recalling hints so I always gave myself a mental high five when I could say, “Yeah, I did catch that. You thought you could get away with that?”

The book did have a lot of murders in it but I felt like the real focus was on the family drama. Don’t get me wrong, it was good drama, not just the roll-your-eyes kind of stuff. Some of it really went deep and kept building throughout the book all the way until the end. It was layered a lot more than what I was expecting for sure which was hard to keep track of but that may have been because I took a few days off from reading the book about half way through for a vacation.

I gotta say the one thing that irked me out of the whole book would have to be (view spoiler)[the fact that it all had to center around Jeremy (which you won't know until the end) and that he wasn’t dead. I get it no body means someone isn’t really dead, (which was hilarious when the author brought up Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None (view spoiler)[ because the characters do see the killer’s “dead body” posed half way through the book (hide spoiler)]) but it was so silly that after all that buildup it was just this kid (I know not really a kid) that could’ve just said, “Hey, you’re my family.” Then the end! (hide spoiler)]

I didn’t like the million pages at the end that explained everything and then some (I’m more of a simple two to four paged, this is what happened and why kind of person). Whatever happened to Knox’s Rules? Specifically number eight; the detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader. A lot of new information was brought up in this final conversation in the library that was not produced to the reader in earlier parts of the book.

This sounds fun!! Will definitely have to check it out - and remember to grab a paper copy vs audio!