Fiction

books have problem endings. Or very flimsy plots.

I recently read a novel that again, was quite good for the first two-thirds or so. A family had disappeared and our hero was trying to find them. In the end, what caused the disappearance was the existence of a photograph of someone else, someone with a past to hide. So he goes and wipes out the person that had seen the photo, as well as her husband and kids. But there was no way she could have known the real identity of the man in the photo, so I was very unsatisfied with that. Although the very end has something good happen, but it didn't make up for my not being willing to buy the underlying premise of the events.

Another currently popular kind of novel that makes me crazy is having someone behave as a modern day detective in some earlier era. I like the characters in a historical novel feel as if they really live in that time, not modern people dressed up in old clothes.