ktgrok Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 (edited) Spoiler Alert for David Blake's book Horsey Mere. You do not kill off one of the two main characters in a six book series in book five!!! Not cool!!!!! That is NOT how the British crime genre works!!!!!!! ESPECIALLY the ones with a romantic element! I’ve read at least 30 books in this genre and NEVER would have expected that -I read these as escapism - not to end up freaking sobbing at 11pm because the author wanted to be different. Until the end of the dang book I held out hope it was a plot device and she was in hiding or something and not dead. But no. That is Not okay!!!!!!! There are RULES!!!!!!!!!!! This is the series description: "Set within the mysterious beauty of the Norfolk Broads, this fast-paced British detective series is a dark cozy murder mystery with a slice of humour and a touch of romance which will have you guessing until the very end, when the last shocking twist is finally revealed" I am so upset. I spent 5 books bonding with these people, watching their relationship progress, and then she DIES. And on top of it, the other main character acts horribly in this book. Just NOT okay. Edited January 26, 2021 by ktgrok 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livetoread Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 I think sometimes writers get hostile with their readers. I thought that with Patricia Cornwall and her series (I'll avoid spoilers and not be specific), but I thought she got hostile and then backtracked in ridiculous ways. Not to mention, her main character got strangely paranoid, but I thought Cornwall wasn't doing it consciously for narrative reasons, and I wondered if the author herself was going through some weird stuff. Anyway, just wanted to say I know - you have an agreement with certain authors, and when they suddenly violate it, it's just hostile. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted January 26, 2021 Author Share Posted January 26, 2021 3 minutes ago, Seasider too said: I guess David Blake ain’t afraid of Annie Wilkes. Seriously though, kinda surprised his publisher let him do that. When were these books released? Maybe they used to be considered mainstream, before everything published had to fit neatly into a genre for marketing purposes. Sorry for your disappointment, it’s a bad season (covid winter!) for messing with loyal readers. It's recent! And yeah, i am shocked - and I am NOT reading anymore of his books! Between the detective just letting people die cause he's angry at them, and the other detective dying, I am NOT happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted January 26, 2021 Author Share Posted January 26, 2021 Yes! There is an agreement. I mean, if you read an Agatha Christie novel and at the end they said, "huh, no clue who did it, might as well give up" that would be wrong. Or if you read a Nora Roberts book and at he end the characters cheat on each other and break up - that's not cool! If I order a pizza and you bring me a taco, I'm going to be upset! It doesn't mean people can't like tacos, but that's not what I ordered! "cozy mystery", dark or otherwise, does not have the main character for 5 books suddenly killed! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murphy101 Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 If anyone likes Jim Butcher do not read further SPOILERS!! That dirty rotten bastard killed off Murphy. Myself and a good friend read it and he texted me asking how far I was and I said I finished it and he said that to me bc we both just needed to share that truth. And it’s not even a glorious death. It’s some moron accidentally misfires. Just. No to the nope. That is not how it was supposed to go. She better be resurrected in the next book dadnabit. I’m just sayin. I hear ya. Not cool. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted January 26, 2021 Author Share Posted January 26, 2021 This was not a glorious death. She grabbed someone's arm who had a knife and they fell and it stabbed her as they fell. She had surgery, recovered they thought, she said she had horrid dreams while unconscious, he leaves the hospital to get some sleep and when he shows up in the morning to visit her finds out she died overnight. Oh, and it was sort of her fiancee's fault in a way, as the guy that stabbed her was only out on the street because he got mixed up as to when he had to charge him by and the guy was released 10 minutes before he went to charge him with a different crime, one he'd admitted to. If he'd remembered the time right, the guy would have been behind bars. It was miserable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 I have been soured on a favorite author because a new book was just not his normal style at all. Really disappointing. Unlikely that I will ever read another book by said author, even though he was one of my favorites. I don't have much time for reading, and I want my "fun" reading to be satisfying. It does make me wonder, though, if something bad was happening in the author's real life, causing him to either view the world differently from before, or be unable to focus, or be super rushed to just finish and publish the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 I felt that way about Nicholas Sparks (Nights in Rodanthe I think?) and My Sister's Keeper. Just awful. I've mainly been reading very light fluffy romance lately because it's all I have the brain capacity for and I don't want deep thoughts or deep feelings. I picked something off my library's online list of "humorous". It was not humorous. A big trauma for the main character was a big part of the plot line. I wasn't happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lecka Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 I'm sorry! These kinds of things have hit me really hard before and just left me in a funk for days..... not cool! I really watch my reading now and sometimes it's okay for me to read certain things, and sometimes it's not okay. It is really not okay to pick up a book expecting a warm hug and have it be a slap in the face instead! Robin Hobb is like this for me. I really like Robin Hobb and I want to read all her books. But the stars have to align for me to be able to read them!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 Yeah, I'm not familiar with the books, but I understand the sentiment. I felt like that at the end of the Divergent series. Seriously: ugly cry followed by anger. I don't do sob-fest entertainment. My girls always ask to watch (what I call) "crying movies." I just can't handle it. No "the dog dies" or "the fiancé dies" emotion-bomb flicks for me. I barely made it through "How to Train Your Dragon 3." 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OH_Homeschooler Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 35 minutes ago, alisoncooks said: Yeah, I'm not familiar with the books, but I understand the sentiment. I felt like that at the end of the Divergent series. Seriously: ugly cry followed by anger. I don't do sob-fest entertainment. My girls always ask to watch (what I call) "crying movies." I just can't handle it. No "the dog dies" or "the fiancé dies" emotion-bomb flicks for me. I barely made it through "How to Train Your Dragon 3." Yes, so true! Especially dog movies. Nope, not going there. Several years ago my poor DD was reading a YA series (not Divergent but similar, can't remember which) and got to the end of the final book, started crying and threw the book across the room. I had no idea what happened since we were both just sitting there--the main character died. I'd say that traumatized her. Now she won't pick out a book to read unless she checks the end first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 Main characters don't die in a cozy. I'm not even much of a mystery reader and even I know that. It'd be like if in a sweet animated film for kids, you killed the dog in a gory way halfway through and it never even became a redeeming lesson. I feel like books like My Sister's Keeper are in the "uplifting" genre. The uplifting genre's whole point is to kill and main everyone so we can all learn redeeming lessons from it. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy in NH Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 Dumbledore 😭 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 Gosh, I have never read a cozy where the main character is dead. I can see how upset it would make you. And I don't just read cozies at all. I read other kind of mysteries too and that just isn't what usually happens\ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katy Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 I'm sorry, that stinks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 I totally get your anger. I feel the same way when a beloved character or animal dies. It often feels emotionally manipulative to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted January 27, 2021 Author Share Posted January 27, 2021 22 hours ago, TravelingChris said: Gosh, I have never read a cozy where the main character is dead. I can see how upset it would make you. And I don't just read cozies at all. I read other kind of mysteries too and that just isn't what usually happens\ Right! And in mysteries, in general, the main male character, or main character in general, may WANT revenge, but almost always someone stops them, and they catch their breath and see reason. In a "you aren't worth it" or a "I'd rather you rot in jail" way. In this one, he calmly and coldly watches TWO different people die when he could have saved them. Um, what? It was icky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted January 27, 2021 Author Share Posted January 27, 2021 And...I kept wondering how his editor/publisher let him do this. I know mine wouldn't! Plus, there are other issues with the writing - redundancies, "head hopping", etc. Yeah, turns out the publishing company has ONE client - him. So I'm guessing that he IS the publishing company, and if I had to guess, also his own editor. I know there are amazing writers that self publish incredible books. Other writers, myself included, NEED an editor. This guy is in that second category. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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