Benji

it’s a book completely split by the two halves, the first half is a murder mystery told through the eyes of someone who was actually present at most of the crime scenes. With an array of suspects and real life events it is a thrilling read that often you have to reassure yourself this all actually real.

Then the second half feels like a behind the scenes and extras of the first half which is fine but I wouldn’t make the behind the scenes as long as the content, there’s some intriguing stuff like the vinci interview but it ultimately culminates to nothing.

Btw it has to be the son right? He saw his mother get killed and its the only plausible way that the gun left the trail, and also from the behavioural pov he fits the profile exceptionally well.

It's almost too simple to kinda get me into it, my main dissapointment with the book is that I was like 3/4 of the way through the book and i realised that is really not gonna lead to anything much else than an empty story, although the newspaper guys say their own ending explicity. But if i want to hear a story like that i would be hundred times more invested if it wasn't a work of fiction and it really happened, because if its fiction just write me an ending stephen. Has a lot of personality and gets you into this sea side town aesthetic with the characters and the description of the town, little read but dont completely regret it

some of these are just so lacking in what makes sci fi such a fun thing to write and to read and I think what is happening here is it’s just a normal world and then one thing is changed, and that’s just so dull and left with no room for inspiration to go anywhere else. Obviously dick proved himself as a writer later on but this is very lackluster to start