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I bought the new Val McDermid, looking forward to reading it, and I am bitterly disappointed. Her last few books haven't been up to scratch, but this is it. I doubt I will ever buy one of her books again.
Is it her, or have my tastes changed?. When I read a book now I want to see the crime happen, yet McDermid seems to be totally devoid of tension.
Has anyone had a similar experience with an author?. Before she hit the big time she was good, but since her Tony Hill novels where made into Wire In The Blood TV series, she has released a series of duds. Too much pressure from the publisher to produce?.
I would say yes. I find people burn out. I adore, 'grew up with' and modelled my early work on Ray Bradbury. But his last 2-3 books are a disaster compared with the earlier ones, they lost that singing beauty and fluidity of prose. Catherine Cookson wrote herself out about five books before she died, if not more than that. It's a shame, when you buy everything that someone writes and then find they are burned out.
I have always loved Maeve Binchy books as they involve lots of characters and merge their stories together so well. She announced she was retiring, then suddenly started writing novels again, and the latest one -Whitethorn Woods- just isn't as good as some of the earlier ones. Too many charcetrs, so each chapter tells someone else's story or even two separate ones, all loosely connected, but you have no hope of remembering who they all are and it just gets confusing.
I found Minette Walters' crime novels began to pall. The Ice House, The Sculptress and The Scold's Bridle were terrific and very imaginative. All made into TV dramas. But in her later efforts you could sense the strain in putting the stories together. Being hypercritical here. Still brilliant to be able to churn out novels.
For a few years I enjoyed the Kay Scarpetta novels who was a forensic pathologist, by Patricia Cornwall. There was one book (I can't remember the title) where she took ages to get into the action, and when she did, the book finished too quickly.
Comments
Is it her, or have my tastes changed?. When I read a book now I want to see the crime happen, yet McDermid seems to be totally devoid of tension.
Has anyone had a similar experience with an author?. Before she hit the big time she was good, but since her Tony Hill novels where made into Wire In The Blood TV series, she has released a series of duds. Too much pressure from the publisher to produce?.