Number 69- A Cruel Fate- Lindsey Davis

 

You can see from the front cover why I picked this up.  I was looking for a quick read, and i have read one of Davis's Didio Falco book and really enjoyed it, so this looked like a great choice.

However- I'm going there sorry- its A Cruel Fate indeed if someone makes you read this book.

I am grateful for having read it because I now understand what people mean when they make the "show don't tell" criticism.

It tells the story of a captured bookseller in the English Civil War and his time interred in a dungeon in Oxford Castle.  This is mixed in with the story of a woman looking for her brother, a captured soldier, also held in the Castle.

I know Lindsey Davis CAN write, and she can do it well. I have no idea why she doesn't here. This is told in the simplest terms possible.  There isn't a single simile or metaphor in the entire book. There's no imagery, there's no style to the writing.  

It's as if the writers of  Peter and Jane (or Janet and John depending on which country you read your preschool books) got together to tell a story about a torturer in the English Civil War being mean to his prisoners.  

The present tense narration makes it feel worse. I never realised how much prose is improved by comparisons and slightly more complex language than the Tiger Who Came to Tea. In fact The Tiger Who Came to Tea is a much better book than this since the writing has a rhythm to it which this book doesn't.

The editing on this book s sorely lacking too.  How else could writing as poor as this sneak through?

Given power, Provost Marshal Smith uses it with no restraint. Why should he? He behaves like this because nobody stops him.

For that "Why should he? to make the point the author wants to make, the previous sentence should say "Given power, Provost Marshal Smith makes no effort to show restraint." or words to that effect. 

Instead of showing us how letters were sneaked out of the prison, she tells us that "Somehow letters were delivered".  It strikes me that there might have been an interesting chapter regarding getting hold of writing materials and smuggling the letter etc. but instead we get one line to TELL us it happened. The whole book is like this.

I know that this book was written for a cheap giveaway, but she could have put some effort into it. If I'd never read anything else by this writer, I would assume she just couldn't write.  

This will be dropped straight back in the charity box I picked it up from a few weeks back.