Review by kjperkins -- Murdered by James Schannep
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kjperkins
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Review by kjperkins -- Murdered by James Schannep
[Following is a volunteer review of "Murdered" by James Schannep.]
In this “pick your own adventure” murder mystery story, you are celebrating Carnaval in Brazil with your friends. You are taking pictures of the incredible nightlife, full of music and dancing that brings you to an alleyway to escape the excitement when you stumble upon a dead woman – from that moment on you are a Cooperating witness to a murder. As the reader, you are in the driver’s seat and going on your own adventure by taking each path you think will lead to finding the murderer! In MURDERED: Can YOU Solve the Mystery? by James Schannep you have the choice of following three major storylines with over fifty endings – making this book something that is entirely unique to you as the reader.
I loved the idea of this book from the start. Writing “pick your own adventure” stories shows a high level of intrepidness and creativity as an author. Imagining the amount of work and proofing that went into this book is astonishing and intimidating which leads to great admiration of the author – especially since James Schannep did it so well. While I can’t review all the different endings and storylines – I am able to review the one I read, which I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I thought the major storyline itself was interesting, the characters were believable, the writing was superb and overall an enjoyable book that I would recommend to friends and family.
Right off the bat of the story, some of the vocabularies were intimidating. This book is based in Brazil so between the cultural words and the descriptors I had the book and the dictionary open at the same time for the first few chapters. If I had a translation of the cultural words or more context clues, I feel I could understand the cultural atmosphere and general situation better. As the story progressed, it became easier to read and understand which I definitely appreciated. This led to more focus on the storyline, which some seemed to be all over the board with various ideas that didn’t pan out. We get to learn about interesting details like a note at the murder scene going missing, this big politician owning a sugar plantation that is making shady deals and finally the fiancé of the murdered woman being blackmailed from presenting at an energy conference. All of these are really interesting details and storylines that we don’t hear about again as readers – that just seem like dead ends. Of course, that is what is tricky about “pick your own adventure”, it could have been brought up in one of the many storylines that I simply didn’t read about. Personally, all these dead-ends just felt like fillers to keep the reader progressing through the storyline to either “win” or “lose” the story. They were simply there with no further progression which I would have really enjoyed reading an expansion of those ideas.
Some of the strongest parts of the book are based purely on the author’s style of writing. This was extremely well researched and edited to make this a particularly believable book that involves Brazilian culture, workings of US agents in other countries and renewable resources such as ethanol. That sold the storyline because it was written intelligently and it was clearly researched making the readers really buy into the story. The writing itself was full of imagery and used words in a way that brought an intense picture to our head, one example being: “five cartridges dance like musical chairs toward the chamber, each cartridge pristine, save for the one already dented by the firing pin.” These moments of vivid images follow us through the book no matter what pathway we choose. The picking of different pathways through the story was almost seamless, I came across only one that repeated itself, every other pathway I took lead to the next chapter that was a clear pickup and I didn’t feel like I was dropped into an unknown or unclear scenario.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I’m so glad I had a chance to read and review it. Overall, the writing was smart, snappy and all the storylines were written clearly and synced well together. While I wish there was more development of the stronger storylines (such as Viktor being removed from the energy conference) and less on the seemingly random storylines (visiting the Sugar King and having the pilot shot), I understand there needs to be lots of material in order to create multiple storylines and all the different endings. This book can be enjoyed by the murder mystery fans as well as readers who like action and adventure. “Pick your own adventure” style books are not for everyone, so readers need to be aware of their preference before they dive into this thriller. Thank you to James Schannep for this incredible book and for the opportunity to read and write about it!
******
Murdered
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
In this “pick your own adventure” murder mystery story, you are celebrating Carnaval in Brazil with your friends. You are taking pictures of the incredible nightlife, full of music and dancing that brings you to an alleyway to escape the excitement when you stumble upon a dead woman – from that moment on you are a Cooperating witness to a murder. As the reader, you are in the driver’s seat and going on your own adventure by taking each path you think will lead to finding the murderer! In MURDERED: Can YOU Solve the Mystery? by James Schannep you have the choice of following three major storylines with over fifty endings – making this book something that is entirely unique to you as the reader.
I loved the idea of this book from the start. Writing “pick your own adventure” stories shows a high level of intrepidness and creativity as an author. Imagining the amount of work and proofing that went into this book is astonishing and intimidating which leads to great admiration of the author – especially since James Schannep did it so well. While I can’t review all the different endings and storylines – I am able to review the one I read, which I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I thought the major storyline itself was interesting, the characters were believable, the writing was superb and overall an enjoyable book that I would recommend to friends and family.
Right off the bat of the story, some of the vocabularies were intimidating. This book is based in Brazil so between the cultural words and the descriptors I had the book and the dictionary open at the same time for the first few chapters. If I had a translation of the cultural words or more context clues, I feel I could understand the cultural atmosphere and general situation better. As the story progressed, it became easier to read and understand which I definitely appreciated. This led to more focus on the storyline, which some seemed to be all over the board with various ideas that didn’t pan out. We get to learn about interesting details like a note at the murder scene going missing, this big politician owning a sugar plantation that is making shady deals and finally the fiancé of the murdered woman being blackmailed from presenting at an energy conference. All of these are really interesting details and storylines that we don’t hear about again as readers – that just seem like dead ends. Of course, that is what is tricky about “pick your own adventure”, it could have been brought up in one of the many storylines that I simply didn’t read about. Personally, all these dead-ends just felt like fillers to keep the reader progressing through the storyline to either “win” or “lose” the story. They were simply there with no further progression which I would have really enjoyed reading an expansion of those ideas.
Some of the strongest parts of the book are based purely on the author’s style of writing. This was extremely well researched and edited to make this a particularly believable book that involves Brazilian culture, workings of US agents in other countries and renewable resources such as ethanol. That sold the storyline because it was written intelligently and it was clearly researched making the readers really buy into the story. The writing itself was full of imagery and used words in a way that brought an intense picture to our head, one example being: “five cartridges dance like musical chairs toward the chamber, each cartridge pristine, save for the one already dented by the firing pin.” These moments of vivid images follow us through the book no matter what pathway we choose. The picking of different pathways through the story was almost seamless, I came across only one that repeated itself, every other pathway I took lead to the next chapter that was a clear pickup and I didn’t feel like I was dropped into an unknown or unclear scenario.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I’m so glad I had a chance to read and review it. Overall, the writing was smart, snappy and all the storylines were written clearly and synced well together. While I wish there was more development of the stronger storylines (such as Viktor being removed from the energy conference) and less on the seemingly random storylines (visiting the Sugar King and having the pilot shot), I understand there needs to be lots of material in order to create multiple storylines and all the different endings. This book can be enjoyed by the murder mystery fans as well as readers who like action and adventure. “Pick your own adventure” style books are not for everyone, so readers need to be aware of their preference before they dive into this thriller. Thank you to James Schannep for this incredible book and for the opportunity to read and write about it!
******
Murdered
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: The Shepherd's Calculus: by C.S. Farrelly
