WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
A reaction to Deadly Sweet by Sterling Watson, and an observation on endings.
I would first like to preface this with the acknowledgement that I am fully aware that one person's poor ending is another's ideal one, and as such to be clear I am not looking to say that one style is wrong and another is right. The following is purely an observation I am making in the very specific context of MY preferences and needs. This is just my opinion, and as such should be taken with a good sized pinch of salt. For context, I was purchased as part of my festive gifts this last Christmas a mystery paperback. One of those blind-date-with-a-book type situations, where you are sent a book that falls into the area of general details you've specified , however is otherwise entirely unknown until you tear it free from its kraft paper wrapping and reveal its identity. As a side note I would like to stress that irrespective of my overall feelings by the time this particular mystery paperback and I concluded our time together, I still think the mystery book concept is great, and I will likely partake in receiving blind-books again. An experience is an experience, and I'm a firm believer in try anything once - twice if you like it. In this scenario, whether you inadvertently discover your new favourite author under the plain brown wrapping these text invariably arrive in, or you utterly loathed the book from page one and struggled through in the vain hope of something saving it - you know something new, and can take something away from it. Now that may be a revelation of 'oh my god, I need to read more of this guys stuff!' or the quite the contrary, but reading something without having prior knowledge or expectation from the text will always help you identify what you do [and do not] want from your reading material moving forward, and may help shine an unexpected light on aspects of your taste you were not anticipating. On this occasion, I would not go so far to say that I was unlucky and received a book that was not for me, as this is not strictly true. There were aspects of the story I was engaged with, and I continued from chapter to chapter sincerely curious and interested in how the numerous aspects of the overall story would be resolved in the 438 pages presented to me. I would however say that there were warning signals early on that my frustration at the close of the final page was inevitable. With less than 100 pages remaining, my heart sank as it became very apparent that I was about to experience that most loathed of any bookworm's problems when reading - a whiplash inducing abrupt and hollow ending. For context, the synopsis on the bask cover states the following: 'The woman caller had a voice like an angel. She looked like an angel, too - but she was already on the road to her own private hell. When Eddie Priest - and ex-lawyer and star athlete - receives a cry for help from the victim of a scare campaign, he does not take her fears seriously. But after her suspicious death, Eddie can no longer back away. A man has gone missing in the sugarcane fields of Florida, and someone is trying to eliminate all traces... till an inquisitive woman stirs up a hornet's nest of greed andd corruption. Now there's a violent 'enforcer' on the loose, clearing up and settling scores. And by the time he completes his nightmare agenda, the can fields will be soaked with blood.l So, from the off, the first major event to happen in the book is spoiled - upon meeting Corey Darrow, you know she is going to die, and probably early on to allow for some sort of sleuthing and a steady build up to the 'gotcha!' I let this pass, as I was entirely correct and Ms Darrow met her untimely end by page 67. This leaves us with 371 pages for Eddie Priest to inevitably wrestle with his guilt and grief for the woman he just met but felt something for, get his Columbo on, find out who the designated Henchman is and the ultimate Big Bad, get Corey the justice she deserves and whatever Watson decided would be the best 'looks to the future' prologue for Mr Priest and whoever of his friend/s survive [noting the 'soaked with blood' line - I was expecting a number of fatalities before the finishing post]. I'm on board, and ready to ride the quasi-detective train to Okee City. The issues started to wave their red flags at me shortly after Corey' not-identical-but-bloody-close sister Sawnie Darrow arrives late for her funeral. There is an established core group of characters: on a sliding scale from The Good Guys to The Big Bad, we have Eddie, Raymer, Sawnie, Governor Bill, Moira Big Breath, Harry W. Feather, and Colitis. There are some others, the only particularly significant one among a pool of otherwise fillers being a missing botanist, who is at the core of the whole thing while being dead from the offset. My issue is that even though there is not by any stretch of the imagination an over abundance of Central Characters for a book of this length, there are too many threads Watson plucks from the patched-fabric of these characters left floating in the Florida sea breeze by the books conclusion. Furthermore, there are certain plot points which, if there was no intention to tie up the lose ends for the finale, were entirely unnecessary and could easily have been substituted out with something/someone else without altering the narrative of the story in any way. The more sub-plot and back-story we are given, the more ends start fraying. For example, after establishing Sawnie as a political aid before her jaunt back the the county, the Governor serves no purpose. He provides context that Sawnie can think fast and handle things when shit goes down, but his inclusion after that did little but make me wonder 'why not just use Lucy for this? That would be cleaner.' Bill turning up at the house prior to the big Stand Off didn't actually do anything that could not have been achieved by a heartfelt all-cards-on-the-table conversation and planning session between Sawnie and Eddie following the death of Raymer. Sawnie could just as easily have told Eddie to get the blood of his dead friend off him, and then they'd carry on talking, and while he was showering she still sneaks out to confront Coltis. We get the exact same outcome, and arguably in a more logical manner. We never see Eddie and Sawnie discuss the brutal death of Raymer as their friend - the man who cried his eyes red when Corey died, who having failed to protect her in life tried desperately to find her justice in death. Why not let the two of them have that moment, and the result of the talk is Sawnie fired up and going for Coltis. Bill does not need to appear again in person, Sawnie could call in favours from Lucy, as previously established, or considering Eddie was a supposed Environmental Crusader, surely he would have contacts from back in the day that could have as easily provided the intel Governor Billy Miles did in his cameo in Okee. His disappearance and spontaneous arrival at the Darrow house served no purpose, and although I will concede it is in character for Wild Bill that does not mean it was necessary. It kept the Sawnie Darrow's Political Future subplot vaguely present in the core narrative - but this subplot also did little to enrich or enhance the Main Story. My primary issue however came at approximately page 379. Where I realised I had under 100 pages left and the following to resolve: Billy Miles is missing - where has he gone and why? Moira's murder has been pinned on Eddie - how will he get exonerated? [by any chance are they going to not totally ignore the fact that there is semen on the body at the crime scene which is not Eddie's, instead of fixating on a random Bic lighter that is in her trailer, a walk into the woods away from where Moira was shot. Where Moira was shot, and left naked, covered in semen, and a panther hide -factors which all really scream out 'Eddie did it', right?] Will Moira's writing be found by someone who will do something not evil and/or corrupt with it? Will the Miccosuki have their land returned/Moira's work be realised? Will anyone actually identify the Hippie Botanist, and will his murder be both revealed and solved? Will they make the leap between the plant Moira directed the unfortunate cyclist to on Coltis's land and the reason it's so damn important? Will Raymer's murder be 'solved' by the law? Or Corey's? Or Reynold's? Or Boners? Will Feather get his comeuppance? and Coltis for that matter? That's a hell of a lot of loose ends, and the general flow and pace of the book up to this point did not strongly suggest to me that there was sufficient time to cover everything. Fifty-nine pages, to resolve all of the above is an ask for anyone. The deeply frustrating thing is that there was absolutely no attempt to do so for the vast majority of the points not covered in the final dash to the end, nor the plethora of further issues that arose following the power-play through the few that are 'tied up'. From pages 380 to 432, just fifty-two pages, Watson takes us through the following: Bill has taken a drive down to Okee City to see Sawnie, forcing numerous people to lie and cover for his failed attendance at his actual job. He flexes and provides some information [that arguably, as mentioned above, Eddie could have legitimately obtained] and then can literally assist no further as he cannot be seen in Okee, a fact pointed out in the story by Eddie. One point resolved, although in a disappointingly unnecessary way. Eleven to go. Moira's death is now being rumoured to be connected to Coltis, so potentially Eddie might be ok - this is not however clarified fully. Sawnie sneaks out to confront Coltis, is stopped short by Feather who had the same plan that evening, and finds herself tied up in the tractor shed. Feather confronts Coltis, Eddie turns up, everything kicks off, guns are fired, Coltis dies - so technically gets his comeuppance. There is the Stand Off between Eddie and Feather, Feather is killed, Sawnie and Eddie survive relatively unscathed. And then...we skip to Sawnie and Eddie on a boat, Darrow now Congresswoman and Priest reopening his legal practice. Nothing about what happened in the immediate aftermath of the Stand Off, the ramifications of what was raced through in the previous pages, and how they somehow came out the other side free and with careers intact. Not to mention what came of the the wonder-vine, Moira's research, and the investigations into the deaths of the five other characters which now clearly seem at least somewhat suspicious. I felt cheated, and it is deeply frustrating. When reading any work of fiction, you mentally log the significant plot points, subplots and characters. You wonder why they are important, what the connections are, and ultimately look forward to ends being tied and these various aspects being resolved. If not completely, at least to a point where things make sense and you can fill in the few remaining blanks yourself with a little imagination and logic. There are however authors who appear to take liberties with the amount of filling in you as the reader are required to do, and this I find infuriating. I am more than happy to engage with a story and do some of the work myself, and appreciate fully that sometimes less really is more. There is a line however between reader participation and what ultimately comes over as lazy storytelling. There are countless books I have completed and upon being asked how it was I've immediately said "I wish there was more!", however have followed up with the awarenesses that the story was ended exactly where it should have, that the story up to that part was entirely or almost entirely resolved, and it is ultimately my greediness wanting to known where the character(s) go next that is my gripe. Wanting more can be a sign of a great writer, when the more you want is the next part of their story. However when you close the book and want more because there are massive plot points unresolved, and parts of the story either appearing to have been unnecessary or forgotten about, you have a problem. I put this to any writers out there, if it doesn't serve a specific purpose that cannot be achieved another way, or you do not intend to tie up the lose ends caused by the character/plot point, do not include it. The pace of Deadly Sweet had been slow and steady throughout, and to reiterate there were aspects of the story I was invested in and was looking forward to the final pay off. So the sudden tempo change was jarring, and felt like Watson had not given himself enough time to finish the book before it's deadline was due. And the subsequent complete lack of addressing any of the major events that have literally just played out mere pages before caused such sever whiplash I'm still aching days later. The fundamental issue I have is the desperately apparent missing chapters between Feather having his face permanently removed, and Eddie and Sawnie chilling out on his boat. There is a hollowness to the ending that I was not expecting from the build in the preceding chapters, and it sucked the enjoyment I had taken from the book up to the 379 page mark. I cannot say I think this was a bad book, there were points I really enjoyed. However the journey from the blurb-spoiled death of Corey to the Priest/Sawnie sailing into the sunset has huge issues. There are multiple aspects of the core storyline which are just totally disregarded and left in the limbo of unresolved narrative. How it was deemed reasonable to leap directly from a highly-charged face off between the Good Guys and the Bad Guys, to a casual chat where it is clear the Good Guys are living their best lives months later, and not cover ANY of the aftermath of the Stand Off is utterly beyond me. Far too much was left unanswered. I would have been happy for ambiguity surrounding if Sawnie and Eddie make a go of things, I cannot however forgive the total lack of acknowledgement of the scenes which immediately preceded the boat scene. For me this book had a lot of potential, and my curiosity was piqued. I was intrigued to see how Watson was going to bring the multiple threads of the overarching story together in a cohesive and intelligent resolution: how Eddie's being framed would be unravelled, the multiple murders solved, Coltis losing the land because it's the right thing to happen, Feather paying for his lack of impulse control and taking liberties with his instructions. Perhaps Priest finding the missing diskettes and moving forward with Moira's work in her memory... so many things I was excited to see explained, worked out and tied up. Immediately following the demise of Feather I was desperate to see how the hell Watson was going to play Nailor, the up to now Cop in Coltis's pocket. How Eddie was going to get away with literally blowing off a mans face when he was already pegged for Moira's murder. There were just so many questions left unanswered, so many more poised following the big Stand Off, and I was left desperately disappointed. Overall it just felt very much like Watson suddenly realised he had no idea how to explain what happened next, so didn't. There could easily have been another three to five chapters covering the aftermath, the discovery of evidence which ties Coltis and Feather to the deaths, the exoneration of Priest, the burial of Reymer, Sawnie deciding to proceed with submitting the paperwork to be put forward for Congress, and how the hell they managed to spin the events in Okee in a way that did not kill her career. Instead I was left wondering what the hell just happened, and where the missing part of the ending was. The bigger issue is that Deadly Sweet is by no means the only book I have read where the steady story building in the first three quarters of the text is rendered completely redundant by a high-speed finale and vacuous ending. This is simply the most recent example. Which is deeply disappointing, as ultimately the effort and intelligence exhibited by most author's in the majority of the allocated page count they provide illustrates that they are likely perfectly capable of providing the aspects that are so jarringly lacking. Why would you create a complex and cohesive narrative, only to bypass significant plot conclusions? If you don't know how to resolve the aspects, simply pretending it doesn't need to be is not acceptable for the Reader you have taken on the journey so far. In all my observation would be stop adding aspects to the story if you do not have a clear idea of how you resolve them, and do not leave too many loose ends untied. Because if you do you run the very serious risk of turning your reader off, leaving them frustrated and feeling cheated - and disinclined to pick up another time baring your name. Remember there's a line between leaving something to the imagination, and failing to conclude your narrative - don't fall foul of the Missing Ending. -DTB