I knew
I would come across bad stories and bad writing eventually. I am not a picky
reader and almost give books a first try before I decide if it is not for me.
Genevieve, was book that had good writing, but the story did not capture me,
and nor did I like any of the characters. Therefore I would technically call it
a bad book. Yet “Detective John Saunders’: Erotic Noir” is a perfect example of
bad writing and bad story.
The
plot takes place in the underbelly of L.A. when a young girl’s body is found in
the parking lot, stabbed to death. Detective John Saunders, described by the
author and some of his employees as a drunkard and womanizer. The story continues
to tell the reader how much of a drunk John is but does not actually showing
him consuming alcohol or why. We are just to assume that John has seen rough
things and like most detectives in the early 1900s of America, drowned his
sorrow and unease in liquor. John is also stated to be a hopeless womanizer as
was the norm of all detectives, I am not sure if this is supposed to titillate
the reader. Personally a cheating old man that is constantly drunk does not get
my loins a flamed even if he has the very descriptive “body of a thirty year
old man.” Yet I might not be the audience the book was trying to capture. As
the reader follows John on the case the plot becomes predictable. There are
only two suspects and the climactic twist at the end is contrived and paint by
numbers of story telling. I am very disappointed. No. I’m livid that this short
story somehow was published.
I do
not know the difference between the book and the eBook other than one is
electrical. Therefore I hold eBooks standards as I would any other novel. When
a story is to be published it goes through editors to make sure the grammatical
mistakes are corrected as well as spelling. In White’s books there seems to be
no middle man. The grammar is horrible, and this is coming from someone that
overlooks and curses the English language almost every day as I am writing this
blog. Grammar often alludes me but if it is so horrible that it effects the
pacing of the story and I am drawn out of a sex scene to turn to my husband and ask, “Is ‘cummed’ a
word?” I cannot get fully invested in where the story is going.
The
other gripe I have is, “Erotic Noir.” One; Erotica does not have to have sex
dripping from page to page, yet there has to be a sense of sensuality in the
characters, and more than one sex scene in the entire book. Detective John Saunders is not sexy at all! Two;
Noir in French means “Dark,” literature and Hollywood used this term to
describe mystery stories that were gritty and solved and involving characters
that WERE NOT apart of the police force. Usually a private eye would be hired,
or a young heroine would find herself the victim of false accusations and has
to rely on herself to prove her innocence. Detective John Saunders is not discharged
from the force or retired, he is still active which would make this a crime
novel or short story, I’m not sure it’s only 25 pages long. Even if White was
using “Noir” to describe the erotica, the terminology still does not hold. With
only one sex scene and nothing unusual than the two characters are having sex,
no ropes, no gags, no spanking or any other naughty fetishism it is hardly
dark.
The
worse factor of this eBook is that I cannot sell it back.
Ugh.
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