The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

Hi, all.

Here's a spoilers-allowed thread for discussing The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker, to be led by Oak.

Happy Reading!

I wasn’t sure about this book being good at first, but I have changed my mind! I real alpha twister for sure!

I finished this morning. I have to say that wanted to like it, I really did, but I just did not.

Nancy wrote: "I finished this morning. I have to say that wanted to like it, I really did, but I just did not."
Okay -- so I am about 1/2 way through and it just is not grabbing me. Too much filler. Boring!! I think it will be my first DNF. If it was a shorter book, I'd probably persevere but at 650 pages or so...I dunno, it's just not that riveting. UPDATE: Gave up on it. Too contrived. And head's up. Authors are not treated like rock stars and they don't get $3 million advances -- not even Stephen King gets that. Ridiculous.

Judy wrote: "Nancy wrote: "I finished this morning. I have to say that wanted to like it, I really did, but I just did not."
Okay -- so I am about 1/2 way through and it just is not grabbing me. Too much filler..."

The too much filler idea is spot on. Having to sit through the history of Marcus and his career was just torture for me because I didn't care. Other things that bothered me included the story being filled with stereotypes, the snags in the investigations somehow miraculously solved and the last straw was that one of the key plot points (what happened in Alabama) was somehow just forgotten about after Marcus knew that discovering the truth there was critical. And I have to say that for me the writing was just not as tight as better mysterious/crime novels I've read.

I have never come so close to DNFing a book so many times as I did with this one. In hindsight, I should have just done it. I kept hoping it would get better but it did not.

Like any mystery, the investigation in this book wouldn't be easy; people lie, hide facts for their own benefit, or to cover for someone else. By the middle of the book, I had an almost concrete idea of who the killer was and how everything happened. I confess it's not an easy book to read; it becomes uncomfortable. Set in the 70s, we have a neglectful father, an inefficient police force, a mother with disorders, a 15-year-old girl in love who was murdered, an impostor writer, a writer friend, and a detective who doesn't give up easily. Even after the twists, the personalities and attitudes of the people involved worsen as they are revealed, but the mystery remains.

The search for the truth is what attracted me most to this book. After the facts are disclosed, masks fall, and it becomes harder to sustain the lies in the face of the truth.

Got a late start on this one, technically a day late but who’s counting lol? I was back and forth on this one. I liked it, I didn’t like it. The first half was definitely rough to get through but it did eventually hook me. Just felt like obvious holes throughout the story that I struggled to overlook. Like “Alabama” they make it a point of emphasis multiple times then just happen to overlook it during the investigation?