Part of my job at the moment is to do all the purchasing for the library, and one thing I look at is the New York Times Book Review bestseller list.
Number 1 for last week is Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell. I went over to Amazon but saw that it has received 102 customer reviews with an average rating of 2.5 out of 5 stars. Which, ouch. Then I saw the first customer review and I absolutely had to share this bit with you. Props to eagle-eyed Top 1000 reviewer Terry Matthews, who notes:
Between pages 65, 66 and 67, Cornwell writes
"...he's done the unthinkable."
"...he might be capable of the unthinkable."
"...not if he did the unthinkable."
"He may have done the unthinkable."
"...she hopes ... that the unthinkable hasn't happened."
"Assuming he's done the unthinkable..."
What's *unthinkable* is that this mess got through the editing process. Is there no one brave enough to stand up and say, "Miss Cornwell, this won't do. Bring it back when it's worthy to print or get a ghost writer."?
Wow. That is so, so very awesome, especially when you consider that "unthinkable" is pretty much a word you use when you don't know what else to say but want to sound all dramatic. And to use that word 6 times in three pages? Means you were suffering from a pretty big mind fart. I think I'll hold off on this one. If people as for it I could always show them the bad reviews and ask, "Are you sure?"
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