Week of Sept. 22 , 2013 – Book Review: “Body Count” by PD Martin

By Joan Whetzel

 

“Body Count” tells the story of FBI agent Sophie Anderson – recently transplanted from Australia – in one of her early cases with the Bureau. In this case, a series of women go missing and end up dead. Several key similarities suggest the killer’s signature. The killer’s signature becomes more evident when the Washington DC cases are connected to similar murders in Arizona, Michigan, Chicago, and Florida. But the whole case blows into high gear when one of their own agents, and Sophie’s best friend, is kidnapped by their killer.

 

I almost put this book down, never to be picked up again. Ms. Martin committed 2 writer’s sins – at least in my book. Her first sin is starting out the first chapter with the close of Sophie's last case then just sitting around for 3 chapters introducing characters, and not moving the plot at all. I, personally, hate books that take so long to introduce a plot. I much prefer a story that jumps right in with both feet, or at least gets it started within the first few pages.

 

Martin’s second sin is her propensity for stopping the story – frequently – to explain things to the audience, like the readers are too dense to figure out these things for themselves. It’s the oldest known writer’s error of telling instead of showing. The one thing that any writer’s course – in any genre of writing – drums into future writers is to “show; don’t tell.” But Martin breaks this rule repeatedly, and I found it extremely annoying. The plot starts gets exciting, and suddenly she stops it to have Sophie give a sidebar explanation of basic FBI procedures and forensics. Then she jumps back into the story. What makes it disturbing for me is that it interrupts my train of thought, so that I have to go back and find out where I was in the plot and jump back to the story a paragraph or three down the page to pick up the story again.

I know, I know, I’m jaded by all the forensics-rich TV shows that have been so popular lately. But I don’t want my writers to keep stopping the action to give me a forensics 101 course every few pages. It interrupts the action so much, it’s hard for me to keep on track with the story.

 

About half way through the book, Martin finally lets up with the interruptions and keeps the plot going. But it was really hard getting into the book and staying with it. I’ll give PD Martin a break though. “Body Count”, which came out in 2005, is her first book. I know she’s got at least one other book, though I haven’t located that book or any others by PD Martin. So I don’t know if she’s going to continue with the slow starts and constant interruptions.

 

If you’re looking for a new author, don’t let my gripes talk you out of reading PD Martin’s books. Despite my gripes about the slow start and the unnecessary explanations – the telling rather than showing – I still anticipate that she will develop her skills and come out with some good stories. So I’ll tell you to give her a try and see what you think for yourself.