Yin and Yang: How Can Two Reviews Be So Different?

Smasher has at least three intertwining plot elements.  It made the book a challenge to write and satisfying to finish.  Two reviews this weekend commented on that aspect of the book. 

Joe Hartlaub wrote in Bookreporter.com that: "Keith Raffel is a master storyteller, bringing strong, parallel plot lines and sharp characterization in equal measure to the printed page...."  That almost made me blush.

 
But in the yin and yang of life, Hallie Ephron offered a diametrically opposed opinion in The Boston Globe:  "Too bad, because with so much going on, this novel desperately needs a main character with an emotional core that can hold it all together."  Ah well, it was great to be reviewed in The Globe which was my hometown paper for the seven years I lived in Cambridge.

BTW, I'm interviewed this morning in The Kill Zone by Clare Langley-Hawthorne, author of the Ursula Marlow mysteries.  Drop by and leave a comment.  I'd love to hear from you.

Comments

[Alan Orloff]

Remember the good reviews and forget the others. Getting reviewed in the Globe is big-time!

I'm enjoying your blog tour, and I hope your physical tour continues to go well, too.

[Jeff Sherratt]

What's the matter with Hallie Ephron? SMASHER is a terrific novel, intelligent, suspenseful and downright fun. After reading it, I bought a book about quarks. Maybe Keith can translate it for me. But seriously, I love novels that plant ideas and take you into areas somewhat out of the ordinary. I read fifty or sixty mysteries a year, a lot of the usual stuff. But I also read a number of books written by writers who I consider current masters, think John Dunning, Elmore Leonard and Ken Bruen. And if I were making a list of this year's favorites, I'd put SMASHER at or near the top.

By the way, have you read Ephron’s book,
NEVER TELL A LIE: A NOVEL OF SUSPENSE? Yawn. . .

Jeff Sherratt

[Keith Raffel]

Thanks for the encouragement, Alan and Jeff. Means alot.