Edition Details:
Format: E-book
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Amazon Publishing
Price: (Free on Prime Reading)
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| Surprise Ending by Jeffery Deaver |
First Sentence:
Please! you have to believe me.
Story:
Alan Seybold had come to Baltimore to attend East Coast Writer’s Conference and awards. He had been nominated for best thriller of the year award. He had nothing else in his mind except attending the conference, participating in the seminars featuring him and going with the flow. It was boring for him but it was work. So when he was approached by a police officer with an unusual request he was pleasantly surprised. They wanted his help to take down local crime boss.
Alan was surprised. What could he do? He had no experience in catching goons. But they had his role chalked out from him. Alan thought this could be a new experience for him and an opportunity for a new true crime book. And so he agreed to help them.
But soon he discovered how wrong he was. There’s more to what is being portrayed and Alan thinks he has bitten more than what he can chew.
What had Alan led himself into?
Read the story to find out.
Major Characters:
Andre Hector Fredrico – An organized crime boss of Baltimore
Angel Ramos – Andre’s hit man
Billy Frey – A drug peddler who had tried to sell drugs in Andre’s area
Alan Seybold – A best selling crime fiction writer
Maggie Daye – The local Baltimore author that had been conduction session with Alan
Bradley Reynolds – Maryland State Police detective
Louis Phan – Bradley’s Partner
Jack Kelly – Another crime boss of Baltimore and owner of Stag and hound
Stan Walker – informant Louis Phan
Raine – Fredrico’s 26 year old son
Kathy – Fredrico’s daughter
Richard Kale – State police internal affairs detective
Sam – Late Husband of Maggie
My Views:
Surprise Ending is a short story by Jeffery Deaver. This is his second work that i have read. I had read Roadside Crosses prior to this which was about a profiler called Katherine Dance and how she manages to find a serial killer.
I liked the concept of Surprise Ending. It was familiar to me as I had been watching Castle from quite sometime and if you have watched it then you can easily see some kind of similarity in the situation of our protagonist here and Richard Castle. Both are crime writers and both are involved with police officers and help then catch the criminals.
The story hooks you from the start and moves with great pace. There are multiple twists which keep your interest till the end.The story also shows you how dangerous it could be for a writer when he tries to do what the people of the law are trained to do.
This a dark story and every character has shades of grey. The good guys also get punished with the bad ones and you tend to admire the cunning of another character which is also bad in some way. But it’s reality. No one is completely good or completely bad. I liked the way these complex characters are portrayed by the writer in such a short piece. I had enjoyed his novel and i would definitely pick more from what he has to offer.
There is another thing about the story that i really liked. The story also discusses two ways of writing. There is Alan Seybold who is a panster when it comes to writing while there is another author called Maggie Daye who is supposed to be a plotter. I have often read about these two methods of writing.
Maggie was a “plotter,” outlining her books extensively ahead of time, while he was a “pantser” (as in seat-of-the)—an author who just started writing and let the story take him where it wanted to go.
I personally think that if you are writing a thriller then you can do it like a Pantser but if you are writing a mystery novel which should blow reader’s socks off then you would have to write a good twist and it would be possible with a Plotter approach only. I think you may not be able to write it like a Pantser. I also think that for a Pantser it would be very difficult to write an exciting ending and therefore i agree with Maggie Daye says about Alan in the end. Stephen king is my favorite writer and he’s a Panster but i have never been a fan of the way he ends his novels. They are sometimes very anticlimactic.
What do you think about this? Do you think Pantser can write a surprise ending? Or they would have to change their approach in doing so?Do you agree with my thoughts? Or Do you not? Do tell me in the comments.
Coming back to the story,I can also guarantee that after you finish this book you’d consider being more nicer to your fellow people. I know i would be.
In the end i would just say that it justifies it’s title. If you are looking for something which is short, thrilling and full of twists then this would not disappoint you. I know i wasn’t.
Some lines from the book that i liked:
As a novelist, he often said there was no such thing as writer’s block; there was idea block. If you thought about your plot problem long enough, a solution would occur to you.
People’s suspicions vanish when it looks like they’re going to get what they want.
Rating: 4/5
If you have read this book, then do tell me what did you thought of this? If you haven’t you can get the book from the following link:
Kindle
©विकास नैनवाल ‘अंजान’
