A new book by Patricia Cornwell, of Kay Scarpetta fame, has had 100s of scathing reviews on Amazon. Not only has she strayed from the mystery genre into scifi, but the book did not come to a satisfying conclusion.
Readers were not pleased.
Here are some quotes:
- IMHO, 2 stars is generous, because this book ends with threads untied, the story barely half-told, and all the character-arcs are TBC.
- Be warned this book is a completely unfinished in every way ending. In fact it feels abrupt where it ends with so much unfinished that I am really annoyed by it.
- It really deserves zero stars for having no ending — at a critical point, it just stops, referring us to the next volume.
- Don’t make this your free book choice unless you want to spend $10 on the second book to find out how the story ends.
I should note that the book is a #1 bestseller in three categories, so I’m not sure the bad reviews have slowed sales. But without Cornwell’s highly recognizable name, I think her fizzling ending would have stopped sales dead.
You don’t want to do this. Even though you’re tempted to end on a cliffhanger, don’t. An angry, unsatisfied reader isn’t going to come back for more.
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 