Review: End of Story

End of Story by A.J. Finn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An interesting mystery but awful, clunky writing that personifies everything, continuity errors (how did that person ask for a photo if no one has heard from him?) and an ultimately disappointing ending.

The writing was very distracting for most of it - it was a lot of work to understand what the author was trying to say, and I kept thinking more exciting things had happened than actually did. It really reads as the author trying to be clever and write a literary best seller but unfortunately it comes off as pretentious and distracting. Not the right sort of style for this murder mystery, I feel.

Added to the superfluous language, the lack of care with continuity bothered me and made it feel messy. The clues seemed forced on the story and as a result things don't seem to fit right. It draws the mystery out, making it feel a little too long.

Finally, when the conclusion came about, it was too much and felt like a bit of a cop out. I was disappointed and while I think the writer was going for clever, it seemed cheap to me.

Still, complaints aside, there was enough to keep me reading and hold my interest. I was curious about the mystery and spent plenty of time trying to guess what had happened.

So if you're not too fussy, it should entertain, but it's a bit of a messy one to really get behind.

This was Book 1 of my Advent 2 Challenge

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