Topic: Why People Stop Reading

Topic: Why People Start Reading Mysteries and Then Stop.

10-second review: Kate Mattes tells what would stop her from reading and stocking mystery novels in her bookstore.

Title: “What Makes Them Stop Reading a Mystery.” Kate Mattes. The Writer (October 2009), 33-34.

Summary:

. The jacket copy calls the book’s author “the next Dan Brown.” Doesn’t want to read something like some other writer.

. Nothing catches her on the first page.

. Being put inside the mind of a villain.

. Beginning with grisly violence in detail.

. “Taking too long to get going.”

Comment: Nothing puts me off from reading a book like saying the author is like “another Ernest Hemingway,” or etc., etc. In fact, nothing puts me off like any allusions to authors I haven’t read or authors who have so many interesting qualities, that I don’t know to which quality the “blurber” is referring, “Orwellian,” etc. RayS.