Recent Readings
Lately I've been trying to find more books in my genre, the genre I hope to someday be published in. I have a tendency to read historical, classics, even the occasional fantasy book. None of which are overly helpful in showing me what sort of elements are key components in mystery/action books. I've read a few recently that I've enjoyed - The first Jack Reacher novel, which is no surprise, as well as a spin-off novel by Diane Capri. However, today, I'm going to talk about things I've learned from a book I didn't enjoy as much: The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd. This was set up with lots of promise: Noah Boyd was once an FBI agent, so he had working knowledge of what he was writing about, the jacket blurb sounded really interesting, and Lee Child wrote a commendation for the cover. I enjoyed the story: ex-FBI agent brought in to work behind the scenes to help catch a group of murderers/extortionist. It was fast paced, had moments of humor, and the right number of...