Teaser Tuesdays: Taxed to Death (again)

I’m about half-way through Debra Purdy Kong’s backlist novel Taxed to Death. (And all you rabid readers are saying, “Get on with it already, will ya?!” Remember, however, I have other things to do all day besides just reading novels. 🙂 I expect this one to take me at least another week.)

I’m not an expert on the mystery/suspense genre, but are the characters supposed to be this flat? My best experiences with suspense come from Holly Lisle’s romantic suspense novels (the few that I’ve read so far) and from Kathy Reichs’s Temperance Brennan novels (at least the one that I’ve read so far). Those have great, compelling characters. My best experiences of mystery come from—who else?—Sherlock Holmes and from Stanislaw Lem’s The Investigation (which is way more X-Files than it is Sherlock Holmes), but again: great, compelling characters. I get that the suspects are supposed to be mysterious in a mystery. But if I was given a clue as to why the hero (the detective) of this story is doing what he’s doing, I didn’t get it. Why didn’t he just say, “We’re in danger here?” Why all the counter-productive subterfuge? Why didn’t he explain his logic and motivations? (To me as much as to the other character?)

(I always worry that when I say something like that, that the author will give me an unfavorable interview, or will say that I “don’t get it.” Of course, she would be right: I’m not getting it. Still, I really gotta finish that humorous post about why book reviews truly are meaningless.)

In any case, here’s today’s teaser, from p. 55:

“How long do you plan to keep me prisoner?”

“You’re not a prisoner, you’re a free person without options right now; there’s a difference.”

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just follow the directions at the “Teaser Tuesdays” post.

-TimK