RogerBW's Blog

Watching Out, Ann Granger 14 June 2018

2002 thriller/mystery; fifth of Granger's novels of Fran Varady, would-be thespian and amateur sleuth. Fran's in a play, very amateur and over a pub for one night only, but it's still acting work; and she's waitressing at the trendy pizzeria that used to be the Hot Spud Café. But something about it doesn't feel quite right, even before an illegal immigrant boy comes in, desperate to find "Max".

Having multiple plot threads going on at the same time is a miniature form of the split narrative: one runs the risk of one story being more compelling than the other(s), so that the reader's keen to get back to it and annoyed when the narrative switches. But Granger pulls it off: the dodginess at the pizzeria may be linked to the kid, or may not, and then there's the play, and then there's Susie Duke the private detective who wants to get Fran to work for her and is bribing her with driving lessons; there's a constant sense of not having enough time to do everything, so Fran herself is frustrated at the shifts between plots, but as a reader I could go along with it.

Fran continues to be prickly and self-sabotaging while developing a rudimentary awareness that this is what she's doing to herself; and more impressively, her inner monologue keeps me in sympathy with her even while she's messing things up.

As before, the pacing is odd; the play's one performance is the obvious place to put the other climactic events, but instead they're spread out over the next few chapters (and days). But Fran is interesting, the recurring cast have developed solid personalities, and overall while this isn't world-changing detective fiction it is rather enjoyable.

Something of a recovery after the disappointment of Risking It All. Followed by Mixing with Murder.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: Risking It All | Series: Fran Varady | Next in series: Mixing with Murder

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech aviation base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2022 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1