Title: Curious Minds
Authors: Janet Evanovich and Phoef Sutton
Series: Knight and Moon #1
a fun romp with an intriguing plot but leaves one wanting something more
This book seemed to come out of nowhere; Janet and her co-authors are all in the middle of series already, so the last thing I expected was a new one. Maybe the Lizzie and Diesel series isn’t selling like they hoped. Regardless, it’s an Evanovich book, so I was game. And overall, it was a fun romp, and I look forward to Emerson and Riley’s future adventures.
This book seemed focused on plot, not characters so much, but that’s not completely unexpected from Evanovich. And the plot is excellent, imo. A bit over-the-top, with not-so-subtle pokes at the NSA and Area 51, but it was amusing to watch unfold. One didn’t wonder what would happen so much as eagerly anticipate what one knew was coming. The plot follows eccentric billionaire Emerson Knight and fresh-off-the-farm banker Riley Moon as they investigate the disappearance of Gunter Grundwald. It’s detailed and fast-paced, and while there’s not really a twist to it, it’s an intriguing concept that I wanted to see to the end.
The characters, as I said before, were not the focus of the story. Riley was a rather bland shade of Stephanie Plum, an attempt at a real-world girl that I didn’t really connect with, and Emerson was arrogant in a simultaneously endearing and obnoxious way. I wouldn’t say he was eccentric, exactly; he’d done shocking things in his youth to irritate his father, who truly was the eccentric one (I loved the exotic pets!), and people didn’t always know what Emerson was up to, so that reputation preceded him. Otherwise he was just a worldly guy with unconventional viewpoints and a lack of social grace. Enough of the basics were covered to the give the characters sufficient background, but nothing too in-depth. Although, if this is going to be a series, I guess there’s time to build that up in later installments (however, if I’m going to help keep Evanovich a millionaire, I’d like it to be worth my while–and money).
I had three problems with the writing. First, in several spots the verb tense was inconsistent. The majority of the book is written in third-person narrative, past tense, but here and there I’d catch an “is” or an “are” and I had to stop and think if it was correct or not. I know at least Evanovich’s Plum series is written in first-person and present tense, so I get it if she got a little mixed up sometimes, but it should have been caught in editing. Secondly, I didn’t care for her name-dropping specific car models and furniture brands. I understand that classic cars tend to be referred to specifically, but even a random car in a parking lot was a Chevy Volt. And I don’t believe I know any furniture by its brand name, definitely not the ones she named, so it didn’t help me imagine the scene at all and ultimately just distracted me. Oh, and also the street names. In the Plum series it’s appropriate because the setting is a character and adds to the close-knit charm. But here, it added nothing to the atmosphere. Thirdly, I’m not sure I needed the short scenes checking in on what the Grundwald brothers were up to. I didn’t pick up anything from them that I couldn’t have gleaned from the heroes’ perspectives, and it might have made the patriarch’s being alive more of a twist toward the end.
And dang it, Riley never looked up the word “amanuensis”! Unfamiliarity with the term was a running gag in the book, and Emerson told Riley it was another word for assistant, which is more or less correct. I didn’t know what it meant until I looked it up just now–it drove me nuts while I was reading–and I kept expecting her to look it up and find out it was another word for lover or slave or something funny. Missed opportunity, that. Another running gag was Riley’s exclamatory phrases, like “crap on a cracker,” which made up half of her dialogue. It was supposed to be funny, but I didn’t find it as adorable as Emerson did.
Also, I’m not sure why the title is Curious Minds. I can’t think of how it’s relevant. I’m not going to waste time pondering it, though.
