Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Written Word Wednesday *TOO MUCH BLOOD*

In the thriller TOO MUCH BLOOD, author Jane Bennett Munro wakes the main character pathologist Toni Day in the middle of the night to perform an autopsy on a less-than-ideal man — a sleazy attorney named Jay Braithwaite Burke. And Day, in her quest to find out what killed the lawyer, discovers that many people had motive to take the life of Burke.

                        Unfortunately, that list includes most of her friends that she has at the hospital in which she works, her neighbors and many more. Burke convinced many of the doctors at the hospital to invest in a hedge fund — an investment which did not pay out and which drew the attention of federal agents.

On top of that, it seems Burke was eager to spread his seed, having fathered many children with many different women. The children are taken care of in his will, on the condition that the mothers never again remarry.

So, the Burke situation is a real mess. Throw in Day’s increasing doubts about how faithful her husband is being and you got one woman who has way more on her plate than she needs.

Munro brings a welcoming amount of knowledge of the medical industry to this book. It is refreshing. Of course, Munro is herself a 34-year pathologist, so writing many of the medical and anatomical aspects would have been like second nature to her.

I really enjoyed the Burke side of the story. It is in-depth and complex, the stuff that good thrillers are made of. The twists and turns are wonderful.

One of the downfalls to the Burke story though, is that many of the characters mentioned are not given ample opportunity to be developed. There are so many different characters involved in it. Munro would have had to have written another WAR AND PEACE-length book to cover the character development.

The biggest issue I have with the book is the side story of Day’s husband and her ever-present thoughts on whether or not he is sleeping around. It was like giving the television remote to a child. Every once in a while, they jump to another channel for a second and then switch it back. Day will be working in the hospital, delving into the Burke case, and then, all of a sudden, her doubts will pop into her head and throw the story pacing off. Munro would have been much better off having separate chapters dealing with Day’s personal life, or she could have left that part out completely.

For that reason, I give it 3 out of 5 stars. It’s a good beach read, but the reread is not incredibly high.

That’s my latest review from Lana. I don’t think she liked it much.

That’s okay, everybody can’t like the same thing. But her criticisms bothered me.

First, she didn’t like that I couldn’t develop all my characters. Of course not, eleven of them were children and only peripheral. Maybe I didn’t need to have so many characters, but I really don’t see how.

Second, she thought Toni’s thoughts and concerns about Hal’s infidelity interfered with the story and should have been dealt with in separate chapters. Life’s not like that. Thoughts like that permeate every aspect of one’s life. I know that from personal experience.

Well, that’s one person’s opinion. Others have been better. Ah, such is the life of a writer!

Trick or treat? Which will it be?