Bad Things Happen (David Loogan)

Unless readers have a photographic memory, a flowchart, cast of characters list, and a chronological calendar are must have tools. Without these tools, readers will find themselves frequently going back to reread a significant portions of this book trying to confirm what they actually have read. So many characters wield theories and alternatives to these theories resulting in less of a mystery than a convoluted series of minutia relentlessly creating reader frustration and confusion. It is not my cup of tea!!!!!

The Book Worm

Discovered this book via a recommendation from a columnist in a local newspaper. (I think it was he who turned me on to Lee Child so I was inclined to trust his opinion.)

This book is a snoozer.

The twists in plot are not all that clever. The (I suppose) main character is truly ho-hum in appeal. Then there's a weird episode at the end (don't want to give it away) that's TOTALLY unconnected to the forgoing.

I do not like to give bad reviews. There are many books I wouldn't recommend but also wouldn't write an Amazon pan.

But I can't let other readers think this is going to be an acceptable, much less, good experience.

(I think the columnist in my local paper might have liked this book because it involves people who write and edit books and operate small publications. Which describes his background I believe!)

The first murder and the situation around it, is rather absurd and not plausible. Why would a newly minted editor want to assist his new employer to bury a body – a publisher he barely knows – and risk his freedom? The affair that occurred between the editor and the publisher’s wife, is dry, un-interesting, also not plausible. Although presented as spontaneous, the sex act (without the sex) came off as a pre-planned one-night stand from the annals of short story hookup culture, with sparse elaboration of the relationship between the two dis-passionate lovers. The two cheaters are as emotionless and dimensionless as the divergent styled scattershot plot. Early in the work I thought the lack of character development at the beginning was a hook, which would lead to better or more descriptive development as the plot progressed, but I found less, not more, that would pull my interest in regarding the characters, and far too much minutia concerned with the publishing industry interlaced with a scattershot fragmented plot.

The relationship between the two, and the character development of the editor and the publisher’s wife was also horribly foreshortened and inadequate. This kind of cartoonish cardboard cutout character development - entirely flat, leaves this reader wanting at best, bored at worst, by page 20. I had to remind myself that this was a crime novel – yet at the very least, an attempt to hold the readers interest should be made – either by at least one interesting or compelling character – or an intriguing primary thread within a plot, neither of which I found strong enough to hold interest, making it laborious to read on.

Page 30 – Loogan asks Kristoll - after he helped him to bury the body, if he intends to shoot him – he says he has no energy. Weak attempt at a punchy one liner. Another example of an attempt to be punchy - after the publisher whacked the first victim on the head and kills him – he stares at the upside down label on the liquor bottle and marvels at it? This is not what someone would be thinking about – an upside-down liquor bottle label – after whacking victim on the head with it – unless the killer was a sociopath – but here again – no character development suggests such. Early in chapter 5 however, was genuinely funny, in the sense that the editor later described the victim as a very poor crime novelist.

The second death – first alleged as suicide – the interjection of Hamlet in the discussion between the cops to theorize either suicide or murder – is really rather silly. Did the author add that to impress? The reference that every café employee in Ann Arbor that hands someone a latte reads Shakespeare…really?

By page 80, a plot with two murders so far, an affair, with a freelance editor, writers, and staff of a publishing house all as suspects, packaged in stick figure character development with divergent scattershot plot styling, I started to ask myself why I care knowing more about these people in such an excessively contrived story.

By page 105 a third body? The first two were not that interesting and now a third (in a town like Ann Arbor)?

The sub plot of a second relationship between the protagonist and the main cop on the case – did not make sense to throw in there. It appeared that the writer was playing the protagonist with the cop by interjecting himself into the story as protagonist, being unable to step outside of the main character.

I pressed on from there. Halfway through the book, I felt as if I was trying to assemble a jig saw puzzle created by throwing together two or three separate puzzle boxes based on different subjects on puzzle box cover photos, and it made the read less fun.

Rather than “flowchart required” to follow along with the plot - a divergent scattershot graph of the plot might be a better descriptor of such – but imagining such mental imagery would be useless to bring one out of the fog of boredom and a nebulous plot which does not flow well, and is far too choppy.

It was a nice try and a good effort at a first novel. This work however should have been a practice run, better placed on the shelf to keep as an example or reference for later works, rather than submitting it for publication. I am hoping there is improvement in the following books in the series, and might give the second book a try at some point.

I was positive about this book (and a new-to-me author) initially but my enthusiasm declined seriously toward the last part of the book. The basic foundation is that the main character, David Loogan, is presented as a mysterious man that ends up quickly becoming involved professionally with the publisher of a short story mystery magazine in Ann Arbor, MI. Throughout the book, there were many comments about how this "real mystery" (in the book) differs from what it would be if it were a novel . That was interesting twist at first but got very wearing over time. There were several times for example when I thought how different it would be if it were indeed a real crime being investigated.

Loogan from the onset seemed like Mr. Milktoast rarely if ever questioning events and circumstances he continually seemed to "fall into" or "drift into". Quite unrealistically, he just goes along doing the job and becoming involved in intricate relationships, circumstances and intrigue. The book was positively fast-paced for a majority of the book with many changing situations and crime-solving challenges to keep the reader interested.

However, I lost interest toward the end when the pace changed. I chose those words carefully because the "ending" went on and on and on and on with twists and truns and twists and turns each becoming more and more tedious, circular, ridiculous and boring to the point of being absurd. The last 25% of the book negated most of the earlier positives in my opinion

This is my second Harry Dolan book, and I enjoyed it. However, the author asks a lot of the reader right from the start. Would anyone agree to bury the body of a man who has been murdered? If you can get past that, it's a good book.

Positives: The characters of Loogan and police detective Elizabeth Waishky are well written. The book moves at a good place, the dialog is lean and sharp, and the murders (all connected with a mystery magazine) are interesting.

Negatives: Even though the author is great at writing dialog, a lot of it appears in the most improbable of places. If you are looking at the sharp end of a stick, are you really going to stop to have a gabfest with the person holding the stick? The ending is too long, and the plot is unnecessarily complicated.

The major reason why I liked the book is Loogan, and I'll definitely read the third book in the series.

Based on some of the reviews, I expected far more from this book. And while I hate to bash a new author, I have to be honest---this book just wasn't good, and here's why:

1. The Characters - They were nothing but lifeless, boring stereotypes. If a drama club chose to act out this book as a play, it would be filled with long, long, LONG monologues, all delivered in a flat monotone voice with no expression on the character's faces. Each person was rendered as bland and generic as a character from one of those old, half-baked TV detective shows from the 70s or 80s.

2. The Plot - The main plot was a combination of several tired, hackneyed plots that have been used time and time again. And perhaps because the author couldn't come up with one decent main plot to anchor the story, the plot drifts off in several different directions---which, instead of making the book more interesting, only serves as a distraction. Instead of one big "who-dunnit" moment at the end, there are 4 or 5 such moments as the author tries to tie all the various plot lines together. EVERYONE seems to be guilty, which is so far fetched that it renders the book totally implausible.

3. THE WRITING - The writing was probably the best aspect of the book, but it was far from remarkable. To me, it resembled the dry, out-of-date prose that was being written 40 or 50 years ago. I was never wowed by an especially intriguing sentence or paragraph; just straight-forward, no-nonsense text that stopped being interesting several decades ago.

I just finished a few heavy novels and wanted something a little pulp, a little noir and a little light.
This book popped up with some decent reviews so I thought I would go for it.
Well, I got "light," but this was really not a very good book. A fast read, yes as it's simple style and pacing lends itself to a quick journey, but not a very good one.
The book felt contrived. Always reaching to try and fool and be clever, but coming across as just trying too hard.
The characters felt like parodies of themselves. If this was intentional then "Kudos," but I get the sense it was not.
This was like a cross between a Mexican soap opera and the game "Clue" with remnants of "The Love Boat" thrown in.
The author uses certain phrases several times and I am unsure why. For example: several times the author refers to a character going to get some "tap water." Why? Was this to create a mood? Make a commentary? Make it feel gritty?
The ending is really a stretch, but funny enough, it goes with the general theme: "Herein lies cheese. Have another helping."
It was a fast read and for that it gets an extra star (good pacing), but everything else was really quite pedestrian.

"Plans go wrong, bad things happen, people die." Boy, do they! After reading this mystery set in Ann Arbor, I checked and discovered that there were a total of 4 homicides in Ann Arbor between 2001 and 2008. Without giving too much away, let's just say that the body count in Bad Things Happen would represent a veritable crime wave in any city, let alone peaceful Ann Arbor.

Bad Things Happen is centered on a noirish literary journal, Grey Streets, its staff, and local contributors. Toss in a bunch of secrets, including [current and past] affairs, undisclosed ghost writers, and secret identities, and mix in the envy of the unpublished of the published. Extra points for the creative selection of weapons, including a volume of Shakespeare.

Bad Things Happen was an easy read, though it became increasingly implausible, not just because of the body count. While the author wants us to empathize with the protagonist, David Loogan, I couldn't really identify with him, and can't imagine anyone acting as he does here. Bottom line: the novel helped pass the time on a long flight, but I won't be in any rush to check out other books by Harry Dolan.

I listened to this book on CD as I commuted to and from work. Some audiobooks are so interesting that I stay in the car a few more minutes to listen...this wasn't one of them. It started off well, but went downhill from there, in my opinion...Too many murders! Too many characters! Very little of the whole thing was believable at all! If I heard "a strand of her raven hair" one more time, I thought I would scream. The only reason I finished listening to it was that I didn't have another audiobook yet. After the 8th CD, I couldn't believe there was one more to go! I wanted the whole thing wrapped up already! Didn't like the ending at all either. I prefer true crime instead of crime fiction, and this book just reinforces that preference. The only reason I chose it was Booklist's recommendation.

Just when you think Dolan has given you the denouement, there is another twist to this clever mystery. First I thought I was reading an Agatha Christie with all the possible suspects, then I changed to Connelly or Chandler but finally I gave up and enjoyed the story. The setting is Ann Arbor, Michigan, home of the University of Michigan and nearby Eastern Michigan University (Ypsilanti). The lucky reader is exposed to literate characters and even the police are more intelligent.

David Loogan is the protagonist who rents a house in town and cultivates a friendly and working relationship with Tom Kristoll, a publisher of a mystery magazine, Gray Streets. No one knows David's past but he is hired as editor and becomes more than an editor to Tom and his sleek wife, Laura. Dolan overwhelmed me with his cast of characters. The police, the editors, the authors, the office staff and the auxiliary characters are all important to the plot. He also created names which are unusual: Elizabeth Waishkey (brilliant detective), Sean Wrentmore, Casimir Hifflyn, Nathan Hideaway (authors) are some of the well thought-out monikers.

Sometimes I believed I was reading a satire on murder mysteries and then I thought I was reading a unique mystery wrapped in its genre. In any event, Dolan definitely respects editors, probably more than authors. I am looking forward to Dolan's next literary venture but this story had too many angles, one could lose interest.