The Cozy Mystery List Blog

I decided that I was becoming rather repetitive with my answers to your comments from yesterday’s post, so I’m going to answer all of them collectively in this entry… sort of a second part to yesterday’s “dilemma” …

If this author had filled her books with regularly-participating secondary characters who I really enjoyed learning about and befriending (so to speak), I would have probably had more of an inclination to stay with the author.

You all were a tremendous help to me. I have been deliberating about dropping this author for a while. There have been times when my family would be out to dinner, and I would actually talk about this “to drop, or not to drop” “dilemma” of mine. And, let’s face it, I have a lot more worries than whether or not I should continue reading a favorite author of mine!!! Trust me!

As for “formulaic mysteries”>>> I totally agree… There are a lot of authors who may not start out that way, but who end up being just that… same old/same old types of plots, and characters who don’t seem to ever grow.

I think you all are correct in saying that if you keep putting off reading a favorite author’s mysteries, then you really shouldn’t consider that author a favorite any longer. I have a lot of other books and authors in my TBR bookshelf, why should I feel obligated to continue with this author – who I have almost started dreading?!? Good grief!

So, I just got back from donating her paperback mysteries to the library. They will either keep them or sell them (if they already have too many copies), which is a win/win for the books. And, I already have a new mystery book started, which I am enjoying. Now if I could just: Guilt Be Gone!

I just finished a mystery by a favorite author of mine, but I am not sure I am going to continue with her. My problem is that this was her third consecutive mystery book that I have read where I absolutely knew the mystery solution by at least page fifty.

I have all of the rest of her books in my TBR bookshelf, which shows you just how committed I am to her. But, I have been toying with dropping her. I read mysteries for the mystery factor, along with all of the other ingredients it takes to make up a good mystery novel. I mean, if I want to read great NON-mystery fiction, I could spend my time reading Charles Dickens’ Bleak House. (Both my husband and my daughter love that novel, and have been trying to get me to read it for… forever!)

I actually pulled my remaining mysteries by this favorite author of mine from my TBR bookshelf. But then I felt the same feeling I have felt in the past when I dropped one of my favorite authors: DISLOYAL!!! She had given me so many hours of very enjoyable reading, but lately, she was starting to get on my nerves! “Come on” I would mentally urge, “don’t let the solution of this mystery be this obvious. Get with it!” I would coax…

I have spoken before about going to the end of a mystery book when I am absolutely sure I know the culprit, and then being annoyed if I am correct. Well, with this author’s last book I didn’t pull that trick. Sure, I wanted to, but I held myself back. I KNEW she wouldn’t let me down… not after the last two mysteries let me down. Surely she was back on her game. NOPE!!!

I want to drop this author, but just can’t seem to do just that. I feel like I enjoy her writing, but I find myself truly annoyed that her crimes are so obvious. There’s a lot of really great fiction out there, why should I continue with an author just because she writes mysteries? Perhaps it’s time for me to take a break from mysteries… but mysteries are what I enjoy reading…

Have any of you found yourself in this position? To drop or not to drop, that is the question!