Lisa Jackson is a frequent presence on the NY Times Best Sellers list. She has at least 75 books in print. She has as many as ten series going or completed, including one with her sister, Nancy Bush. She has even written under a pseudonym, Susan Lynn Crose. She is only 50 and producing more than a book a year. Although she also writes romance novels, she confesses to a fascination with serial killers, shared by so many readers and writers, unlike me, a cereal killer who often downs two bowls a day. I just finished Born To Die (2011). It is part of a series featuring Detectives Alvarez and Pescoli, both female, set in Montana, snow country. Although the mystery is solid, I thought the writing rushed, sloppy, her choice of certain words odd. I wonder how many drafts she does. Maybe quantity has become more important to her than quality. Maybe she is determined to cash in at the height of her popularity. This book could have been so much better, could have used another draft, or a better editor. And, at 473 pages, it’s at least 100 too long, even though it is in the larger print of today's paperbacks. There is a lot of domestic ground covered (Pescoli has married three times), and a lot of repetition overall. In thrillers, I prefer the basics, tautness, though I realize Jackson's fans probably want the extras. On a scale of five, two-and-a-half. I’d guess she and her loyal readers would scoff at my work except, perhaps, A Hitch on Twilight.
I hadn't sold a copy of Adjustments since June of 2011. I'd begun to regard it as my neglected step-child. I'm thrilled to report that Marilena, a fellow alumnus of Lafayette H.S., ordered one by mail. Her dad taught Drafting. I was a student of his freshman year. He was old school when teachers were still allowed to be that way. Thanks, Lena, and to all the other kind folks who purchased books today.
Visit Vic’s sites:
Vic’s Third Novel (Print or Kindle): http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic’s Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic’s Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic’s 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic’s 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic’s Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
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