I just gave up on Marcia Muller's WOLF IN THE SHADOWS.
Basically I found the book pretty boring. Part of the reason
for that lies in Muller's graceless prose, which is competent
and workmanlike but also absolutely dead on the page. I also
think, though, that part of the reason is that the book is
too long. The paperback copy I read ran about 370 pages
(don't have it in front of me) -- I think if she'd cut about
100 -120 pages it would've tightened things considerably. As
things stand, though, you don't read WOLF so much as you plod
through it.
She did get me thinking, though, about length in recent hb
books. Next up in my stack are a pile of Edward S. Aarons
books (just starting ASSIGNMENT: HELENE), and whatever else
you think of Aarons, you have to admit the guy had an
admirable no fuss/no muss approach to storytelling. HELENE
runs about 160 pages, and I'll bet there's not a word wasted
in there.
What do you guys think? I'd hate to make any kind of rules
for the genre -- obviously, books should be as long as they
need to be, and there are long hb books I'd wouldn't want cut
by a word (Ross Thomas's FOOLS IN TOWN ARE ON OUR SIDE, for
instance). But have you found recent hb books to be too long?
Padded? In very general terms, is there an optimum length for
most hb novels? I notice when I go to the bookstore that you
don't see a lot of slim novels on the racks. Publishing
trends, perhaps?
doug
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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