E G Logan
Full Member
NO SPOILERS HERE
@AgentPete -- I'd be interested in your view
New marketing tool: taking the thrills out of a thriller
I have just finished My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing. My irritation concerns not the novel itself -- a dark thriller with many plot twists and 'false dawns' -- but the introductory comments in which Richard and Judy [for non-UK readers, former daytime TV hosts now involved with an eponymous nation-wide Book Club aimed mostly at reading groups] 'tell us whey they love' My Lovely Wife. The novel is one of 'their' book club selections for this month.
IMHO, the strength of a thriller of this sort comes mainly from the surprise and shock/horrror of the plot twists. (Also the characterisation and the pace, but pls. take those as givens here.)
BUT, in telling us 'why they love' this book -- their comments are on the first right-hand page and the one following, right before the text begins -- 'Richard' and 'Judy' drive a bus through the plot premise and a couple of very important twists.
On the very first page, in the second para, 'Judy' reveals the basic plot premise, which was intended to be secret and to unfold gradually. In the third para she alludes to an important plot twist. In 'Richard's' introduction he spells out matter-of-factly the plot twist that ends chapter 1. Not hints at, but spells out.
The importance of the chapter 1 twist is stressed in the puff on the back cover (the first, arguably the most prominent one) from Jane Corry (Sunday Times bestseller). She said: "The twist at the end of the first chapter made me read through the night."
Did no one put those two things together?
As a paid-for reader I am seriously pi**d off. As a follower of the publishing industry, I am totally baffled. I have seen other Richard&Judy choices that did not have an introduction of this sort.
Whose idea was this? What were they thinking? Did anyone senior pass this text?
The only reason these introductions didn't put me off buying the book, never mind reading it, was I didn't read them until I was on a plane... As it is, they spoilt the experience.
@AgentPete -- I'd be interested in your view
New marketing tool: taking the thrills out of a thriller
I have just finished My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing. My irritation concerns not the novel itself -- a dark thriller with many plot twists and 'false dawns' -- but the introductory comments in which Richard and Judy [for non-UK readers, former daytime TV hosts now involved with an eponymous nation-wide Book Club aimed mostly at reading groups] 'tell us whey they love' My Lovely Wife. The novel is one of 'their' book club selections for this month.
IMHO, the strength of a thriller of this sort comes mainly from the surprise and shock/horrror of the plot twists. (Also the characterisation and the pace, but pls. take those as givens here.)
BUT, in telling us 'why they love' this book -- their comments are on the first right-hand page and the one following, right before the text begins -- 'Richard' and 'Judy' drive a bus through the plot premise and a couple of very important twists.
On the very first page, in the second para, 'Judy' reveals the basic plot premise, which was intended to be secret and to unfold gradually. In the third para she alludes to an important plot twist. In 'Richard's' introduction he spells out matter-of-factly the plot twist that ends chapter 1. Not hints at, but spells out.
The importance of the chapter 1 twist is stressed in the puff on the back cover (the first, arguably the most prominent one) from Jane Corry (Sunday Times bestseller). She said: "The twist at the end of the first chapter made me read through the night."
Did no one put those two things together?
As a paid-for reader I am seriously pi**d off. As a follower of the publishing industry, I am totally baffled. I have seen other Richard&Judy choices that did not have an introduction of this sort.
Whose idea was this? What were they thinking? Did anyone senior pass this text?
The only reason these introductions didn't put me off buying the book, never mind reading it, was I didn't read them until I was on a plane... As it is, they spoilt the experience.
This is entirely the publishers’ fault. Someone in editoprial or marketing is asleep at the wheel. But… the author, too, should have rung an alarm bell when they saw the copy.
