Title: A Novel Crime
Author: Deborah Levison
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Pages: 332
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Marcy Jo Codburn has done everything to
become a famous romance novelist, including manifesting success and writing
five chapters of a novel that isn’t heading anywhere. She dreams of a
successful career under the pseudonym, Summer Branigan. Her day job as a
realtor isn’t going well either. Even her college-going daughter Bea considers
her father, Marcy’s ex-husband Kevin, her favourite parent.
When Francesca Barber, the most
successful novelist in America, embarks on a multi-city tour, Marcy and her
three writing group mates decide to go see her. When Marcy catches Francesca
making out with Tabi Benlolo, the Portuguese star of the movie version of
Francesca’s books and the husband of her daughter Aspen, Francesca thinks Marcy
has clicked a picture of them, and offers to help with Marcy’s manuscript.
Suddenly, Marcy’s life is looking up.
Francesca is reading her manuscript and she has a potentially lucrative
listing. It’s possible that Marcy might make a success as both a novelist and
as a realtor, as long as she puts in the hard work required.
But then Marcy gets greedy. Leveraging
Francesca’s secret, she wonders why she should work hard at her goal, when she
could get the famous novelist to do the writing for her. As the collaboration
gets underway, more secrets surface, amid a tangle of looming deadlines and an
attempted kidnap that creates its own set of problems. Will Marcy ever see the
success she craves? If yes, at what cost?
The story is written in the first-person
present tense PoV of Marcy.
WHAT I LIKED:
I love books about books, authors and
writing, so that part was interesting.
Neither of the female main characters
here, Marcy/Summer and Francesca, are likeable or even morally sound. We don’t
understand whether they deserve our sympathy or derision, but it doesn’t
matter. The plot is the real hero here, and events happen at such a crazy pace
that all you can do is sit back and enjoy the ride. This story is certainly
madness and chaos unleashed. In a very good way. Everything that can go wrong
does.
There is a sub-plot about Marcy trying
to improve her relationship with her daughter and to present herself as a
better role model for her.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:
I wasn’t sure how I felt about Marcy.
Sometimes, I liked her; mostly I didn’t.
I dislike characters throwing food into
the trash, and that happens here. Granted that Marcy wants to start eating
healthy, but she should have considered donating the food, instead of trashing
it.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:
The set-up took very long. Or felt very
long.
Strangely, Francesca doesn’t ever ask to
see the incriminating photo. Which is a major loophole in the reasoning behind
the plot.
The scene in which Bea explains her
project to her mother, repeating it for our benefit, was boring.
At one point, Bea yells out that she and
Kevin are vegetarian. That is an error. It should have been Bea and Patrick,
her boyfriend, who are vegetarian.
ALL SAID AND DONE:
I enjoyed the madness in this
book.
(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)
