Security by Gina Wohlsdorf - Another book I probably won't finish

I just... It looked neat on the shelf and I liked the concept. An ultra-deluxe high-rise with top security is infiltrated by a murderer. The perspective is from the cameras on the floors and grounds and sometimes the page is split for simultaneous action. Unfortunately, it's not holding up. The camera perspective is just a gimmick; the list of cameras at the start of each chapter is essentially meaningless. The perspective is sometimes right there with the characters and sometimes like they are being watched from afar. (Cameras generally don't have audio so that would make it hard to keep the pretense up but it would be interesting if it was done right.)

Now, this would be all right if the story, or the characters, were any good. Tessa is the designer/overseer of this big building, getting ready for the grand opening. Her leather jacket wearing, motorcycle stunt riding foster brother comes to talk to her. They met when they were 8 and 10, respectively. They haven't seen each other in years. There's sexual tension and it's way awkward not least because it's implied by the text and by another character that Tessa was very fortunate to get placed in the same home as this hottie. When they were preteens. It's mentioned several times that Brian is in shape but he's not, like, vain. And he's not too buff. Brian is also the type who doesn't listen to his love interest when he's told "no" or "go away". And it's really obvious from the text that that's okay because Tessa doesn't really want him to leave. She can't keep from being giggly and smiling while he tags along with her around her work place after she told him to skedaddle.

Franklin, the manager, is a person "only another narcissist could like" and he's gay. This is how he is introduced and it is later explained that he made up a story in his head about how his life was hard because he was gay but really everyone was kind and accepting and why would he think being gay can be challenging? He's sabotaging the hotel for the competition. The killer kills him within the first fifty pages but it's better to say he's tortured to death for no apparent reason. We are lovingly told how 22 bones in his body are broken and his jaw is broken and his screams reach the empty tenth floor and then he's bashed in the skull with a paperweight and dumped in an industrial dryer from which wafts his moans and the smell of burned meat. The maid just gets stabbed to death. I'll leave someone else to interpret this.

Then there's Henri, the fat, farting arrogant French chef who exclaims "Mon Dieu!" and "Zut Alors!" at regular intervals. He had damn well better turn out to be a spy from, I don't know, Wyoming or somewhere because otherwise this is the author's idea of humor. Also, the kitchen and ballroom are on the nineteenth floor which is a recipe for logistical headaches and disasters.

So, the "Killer" is roaming around, picking off lonesome people for no as-yet known reason but he appears to have a compatriot on the cameras and that's who is narrating the book. Sometimes. Sometimes the narrative is neutral and sometimes it's clearly the unknown watcher, who has way too much of an interest in Tessa. The way all the characters are described makes them seem slightly gross and pathetic and quite frankly I would be fine with the Killer throwing them all down an elevator shaft. This somewhat takes away from the tension.

You know what? I don't need to read anymore about the randomly sadistic gigantic Killer or Tessa and Brian's somewhat incestuous love story.

I'm going to continue reading Jamaica Kincaid's Annie Jones which is a much better book. Eleven year old Annie is growing up in Antigua and as she gets older and starts to turn into a young lady she notices that her mother, who she is very close to, is now treating her differently. It's a sort of slice of life book with reflections on growing up and daily routine and love for parents and the discovery of death. New schools, new friends, new observations.

The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch

I wish I could hate this book. I really wish it had something to it that I could sink my teeth into, whether a stupid plot or irritating characters or a general disrespect for the reader's intelligence. At least then it would have been interesting. As it is I found this book so innocuous, so bereft of anything truly attention grabbing, that it is too boring to even be an annoyance.
Oh, sure, there's the dead kids with the witch's mark on their backs but the mark only serves to stir up witch anxiety among the villagers and the killings all happen in the first 1/4 of the book. Other stuff happens but nothing on par with child murder, leaving the book feeling a little top heavy.

The marks are only in the plot to get the local midwife accused of witchcraft so that we have someone to worry about during the story. Only the midwife doesn't exist outside of the role of "innocent victim who needs to be exonerated". I mean, I don't want to see her tortured and killed, but I never want to see anyone tortured and killed. I don't really have any feelings for her otherwise.

The characters on the whole are pretty stereotypical and flat. The young doctor is enlightened and prissy, the titular daughter is feisty and intelligent, and her father is phlegmatic and practical. He's the only character I really had any interest in and he still had little in the way of an inner life. The villain has the looks and sartorial sense of a Disney antagonist and the townspeople are petty and stupid.

The hangman wants to find the real killer so he doesn't have to torture the midwife but all he seems to do is smoke and drink and then he ends up torturing her anyway. The mystery itself is straight out of an episode of Scooby-doo. This book had the potential to be way more interesting but it seemed to keep retreating into safe blandness.