The description for A Dangerous Fiction
states that this book “will
delight fans of Janet Evanovich, Lisa Lutz, Alan Bradley, and ABC's Castle”. Well
I’m a big fan of both Evanovich and ABC's Castle and I wasn’t delighted.
The story centers on Jo Donovan who owns an
influential literary agency in New York.
She worked her way up in the world from a meager childhood in Appalachia
to marrying one of the world’s most successful authors. For Jo, theirs was a fairy tale romance and
she is devastated by his sudden death.
After his death, she focuses on her life as
the owner of one of the top literary agencies in New York and Jo is living a
life she loves, surrounded by friends, co-workers and clients that adore her. But one rejection slip too many is issued by
her agency and a stalker enters her life.
The stalker’s threats don’t scare her until her clients and friends become
entangled in the web and everything she has worked so hard for is suddenly at
risk. The police are called in and this
is when Tommy Cullen, NYPD detective and an old flame, enters stage left. At the same time as this threat to her is
happening, a biographer is intent on writing a book about her former husband,
and he starts to uncover parts of the past that Jo has been denying, especially
to herself.
Most of the story takes place inside the
agency or her apartment. However, you do
get a feel for the hustle and bustle of New York City. A trip in rural New York State, the scenes in
Santa Fe and the scenes in Central Park are all well depicted and a nice contrast
to the pace of the city, you get a real sense of the surroundings. However, for me the book just fell flat.
Other reviewers have stressed how much they
enjoyed learning about how a literary agency works, I didn’t. There was just too much of this for my
liking. I also didn’t enjoy the name
dropping and references to high fashion.
Yes I get it; this was all done to paint a picture of the type of
individuals Jo mingled with and her lifestyle, but a little bit of this goes a
long way with me. I would have preferred to have been reading deeper
descriptions of some of the secondary characters.
This wasn’t a
page turner for me. I figured out “whodunnit”
and why, less than half way through, so there wasn’t much mystery or thrill for
me. But if you enjoy a soft mystery and want
to find out about literary agencies and how books get published then read on.
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