Details:
Pages: 396
Edition: Kindle
Publisher/Date: The Story Plant / December 4, 2012
Price: $6.59 on Amazon
Challenges: Women Authors, Where Are You Reading?, Mystery/Crime Challenge
★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
I really really didn’t want to give this a negative review. I love Laurel Dewey’s writing! I love Jane Perry! I don’t even think this was a bad book and, if it had been written as a different series with different characters, I have no doubt my review would be much different.
But…
This just wasn’t Jane!
As someone who has followed the series and watched the extent of Jane’s growth, especially after the last book (Revelation), I felt like this book just came out of left field.
This Jane didn’t seem to be a progression of Revelation’s Jane. It was like an entirely different person who just happened to have the same name and the same memories as her predecessor. Jane’s always been what I’d call a no-nonsense, fact-driven badass detective battling her inner demons, but this new character is flighty, gullible and quick to abandon her trademark cynicism in favor of numerology and conspiracy theories.
Jane (the old Jane) isn’t the only character missing. Sergeant Weyler, her former boss and partner who played a significant part through most of the series, is completely absent. Hank, Jane’s promising love interest in the third novel, only makes a guest appearance – and that, as Dewey has said in an interview, was mostly an afterthought because fans were so eager to see more of Hank. Both Hank and Weyler were great characters and instrumental in Jane's story, so why leave them out?
The plot consists primarily of two characters: the new Jane and Harlan Kipple, a man accused of murder who is running from the cops and whoever (or whatever) framed him. Don’t worry, there won’t be any plot spoilers here. I couldn’t even if I wanted to (there’s no way I could summarize it in a few paragraphs), but I will say it is basically conspiracy-theory porn.
Here’s what didn’t work for me:
The pace of the book was too slow. Instead of an action-based plot, Knowing spent a lot of its time in Jane’s head. During these internal monologues, Jane pondered the link between the mind, the heart, pinecones and the number seventeen (it really does make more sense if you read the book). Unfortunately, these parts seemed to go on longer than they needed to and were frequently revisited with little or no additional information. Same shit different page.
Dewey said she spent a great deal of time researching while writing Knowing, and that is quite apparent throughout the novel. But, if you ask me, it was a little too much research. Instead of advancing the story using the experiences of the characters, allowing the reader to come to his or her own conclusions, we are educated through Jane’s addiction to Google. She is constantly “researching” on her laptop and, at times, I felt like I was reading a Wikipedia article, not a crime novel.
On the positive, this book is certainly thorough and well thought out. Those who love a good conspiracy – especially conspiracies about secret world-running organizations such as the Illuminati – will not be disappointed. Even people who have not read the first three books in the Jane Perry series shouldn’t have a problem following along as Knowing is nearly a standalone book from its predecessors.
Hi. First time visiting your blog. I thought this read was brilliant with all the different elements within the story. Very nice review.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliment!
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with you that the book integrated a lot of different types of elements. It was much more intense and mentally challenging (in a good way), than any of its predecessors.