Word: detailism
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Much of Felix's charm comes from its wonderfully self-conscious adherence to the classic conventions of mystery novels. A few key red herrings are made painfully obvious, as are several crucial clues. A large, distinctive signet ring is referred to in detail three or four times; only a very slow-witted reader could fail to mark its significance. In the car after interviewing Mirry about Gavin's death, one policeman turns to his partner and asks significantly, in time-honored detective novel tradition, "I wonder how she knew [the murder weapon] was a spanner," since the precise murder weapon...
...said, referring to her eight-month-old son. "We soon learned our baby Matthew was dying. We couldn't believe it. It was all inconceivable, and it was beyond us to comprehend that our Matty was dying because someone we trusted had hurt him." She recalled in stark detail the hopelessness of the situation: her son, who was on life support, was brain dead. On Feb. 9, she said, "we made the most painful decision in our lives. We had to let Matty go, be free of this life's pain." And then it was Louise Woodward's turn...
After presenting Timothy Bright and his family in some detail, the book abruptly shifts its emphasis, focusing on the Chief Constable. The Constable, finding the drugged Timothy passed out on his weekend home bed, hits him over the head with a bedside lamp. He then spends a significant portion of the novel trying to avoid public exposure by disposing of Timothy's almost lifeless body...
...this haphazard approach to plot development, the storyline often hinders the progress of the novel instead of providing it with the structure that the book requires. The reader often wonders when characters, presented in detail early in the novel, will return in significant roles. Many of these characters reappear only briefly in largely inadequate attempts to end their presence in the story. Thus, the reader is left hanging in anticipation of a more satisfying conclusion...
...America's Most Wanted--decide to write down his own story. From its searing prologue through its frank re-creation of the lives undone by Adam's murder, Tears of Rage (Pocket Books; 318 pages; $24) astonishes the reader by turning a familiar tale into one full of fresh detail, undiminished pain and troubling revelation...