Mechanic of Fortune by Peter Bollington-- and indie published!-- is a picaresque detective story with a lot of wonderful social commentary. This novel is about James Terrell, a private investigator, who is hired by Evelyn Maxwell to find her ex-husband whom she believes murdered his own father. There you have it, the plot. However, this is an ambitious novel with many big ideas (a singular idea isn’t what fiction is about) and many provocative themes that wind their way through the novel.
Yes, there’s a lot going on but not in a frantic or frenzied way. The last section of the novel picks up speed which some readers may interpret as frantic, but frantic isn’t an accurate description of the narrative. The last 20% of the novel-- I read it on a Kindle, thus the percentage instead of pages-- could stand to be slowed down. What I mean is that the actual telling of the story needs to be slowed down. This is a tempo issue, and this is where an editor assists in the publishing process-- although, and I digress, we must keep in mind that NY publishers rarely edit manuscripts these days in order to make them better books.
Anyway, an editor has the necessary distance to make suggestions that refine and strengthen the story. And there are places throughout this novel that could use editing-- and I don’t mean proofreading-- because this is, as I said, an ambitious novel. Overall, this story is an engaging American road trip that travels up and down the much-mythologized state of California and deals in a humorous way with serious 21st century issues. Please give this one a try!
Yes, there’s a lot going on but not in a frantic or frenzied way. The last section of the novel picks up speed which some readers may interpret as frantic, but frantic isn’t an accurate description of the narrative. The last 20% of the novel-- I read it on a Kindle, thus the percentage instead of pages-- could stand to be slowed down. What I mean is that the actual telling of the story needs to be slowed down. This is a tempo issue, and this is where an editor assists in the publishing process-- although, and I digress, we must keep in mind that NY publishers rarely edit manuscripts these days in order to make them better books.
Anyway, an editor has the necessary distance to make suggestions that refine and strengthen the story. And there are places throughout this novel that could use editing-- and I don’t mean proofreading-- because this is, as I said, an ambitious novel. Overall, this story is an engaging American road trip that travels up and down the much-mythologized state of California and deals in a humorous way with serious 21st century issues. Please give this one a try!
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