Alice in Jeopardy by Ed McBain
I finished reading Alice in Jeopardy about a week ago, read it straight through in one day, and now I can barely remember it. That doesn’t say much about a book. My overwhelming impression was that it should have been written by Mary Higgins Clark. It was her style and she’d have done a better job.
Oh yes, the plot slowly comes back to me. It was gimmicky. I guessed the surprise ending somewhere during the first chapter. I don’t think McBain writes a good gimmicky book. He should quit trying. The Bandersnatch one had a similar problem although that one was considerably more intesting on its own merits. Alice in Jeopardy didn’t have much going for it in terms of characterization or interesting dialogue either. It’s so fast-pased there isn’t time for any kind of character development.
I start to wonder if the McBain books are actually being ghost-written now.