The Blackbird Papers

The Blackbird Papers by Ian Smith. This is a first novel for Smith and, given that, it's not bad. It's a fairly standard thriller/murder mystery. His writing style is crisp and you do get pulled in to the story. What makes a book like this enjoyable is trying to figure out where everything is headed before the author takes you there. This really requires a lot of skill on the author's part and carefully plotting. If the author gives too many clues early, the reader is able to figure out the direction and the book is less fulfilling. If, on the other hand, the author doesn't give you enough clues so that the climax seems to pop out of nowhere, then the reader is just an observer and doesn't get drawn in to the story.

This book falls more in to the former category. Smith does reserve a few interesting plot twists, but even a moderately astute reader understands the backstory and has fingered the primary culprit within the first 50 pages or so. I will admit that the few late plot twists are well grounded in early clues so you do get at least a little feeling that Smith has got something going.

This wasn't a great book, but good enough that, as Smith gets better with age, I'll probably continue to give him a try.