Writers borrow heavily from each other. There is nothing new under the sun, after all. There is a tipping point, though, where some language and ideas are overused. I notice this especially in the suspense category. So in the interest of keeping things sparkly, I have compiled a watch list of sorts. The ideas here haven’t reached cliche status yet, but could stand to be taken out of circulation for a while.
- “She looked at him as if seeing him for the first time.” I don’t know who gets the original credit for this line. It’s not a bad turn of phrase. At the point where I have seen it in three books in under a year, though, it’s time to refresh. (The Wife Between Us, The Wives, and Dear Edward are the offenders.)
- “It was hard to tell where he ended and I began.” I recently saw the movie Liar, Liar for the first time and was surprised to hear this line used. I associate it with fiction. It’s time to create some emotional space and ditch it. (The Lying Game is where I saw it most recently.)
- “Her arms pinwheeled as she fell…” Not a bad Hitchcockian image, but it is becoming overused.
As for plotting, let’s examine:
- I have read three books in the last few years in which the book ends with an epilogue in which the female protagonist is pregnant by the psycho who terrorized her in the book. I wonder if this is an homage to Polanski’s famous final scene in which Mia Farrow sings a lullaby to Satan’s spawn in Rosemary’s Baby.
- I have also read three recent books in which the husband is presented as the most likely culprit only to turn out that his wife did it. Are the authors Scott Turow fans? I first saw this in Presumed Innocent.
- I have also read three books where someone close to the narrator misrepresents themselves. In the era of Breaking Bad, I’m not sure it’s hugely surprising.
This week’s book is good example of how to sidestep all this. The first half so strongly parallels a famous, recent true crime case that it’s a genuine surprise when the story pivots at midway, essentially becoming a totally different novel.
Matt Evans is a successful car dealer living with his wife in Denver. They are empty nesters with two daughters in college. One day on a hiking trip, his wife falls to her death. The reader knows something the police do not: Twenty-three years ago, Matt’s first wife died under mysterious circumstances.
The whole thing has a meta feel to it. The author skillfully plays around with readers, anticipating and then upending expectations. All of this is a gamble, though. If you figure out what she’s doing – and I think some people will – the fun is over.
Books Smitten 