From Brokeandbookish
They asked for things that annoy me in books. There are many
1. The phrase 'He did not yet know that he would never return home' and any variations of it...so far I only read one book where this was well done (one of Colin Dexter's Morse-novels) because it was used in a way that only confused the reader further (said character did in fact never return home but for completely unexpected reasons). Basically everybody else uses these phrases just to spoil future events...why not go even further and simply tell the solution on the blurb? That makes just as much sense.
2. Crime-novels that open with a prologue in which the victim is running away from the killer and we get to see his/her last moments before the murder.
Newsflash: I don't really care about you. You're just letters on a page to me and four pages of prologue won't make me care about you enough that I'l be sad about your death. This is a crime-novel. I expect at least one body. Sorry.
Newsflash: I don't really care about you. You're just letters on a page to me and four pages of prologue won't make me care about you enough that I'l be sad about your death. This is a crime-novel. I expect at least one body. Sorry.
3. More crime-novel specific things: the main-character is suddenly a murder-suspect. Gee...now I wonder if they'll be able to prove his/her innocence in time.
Spoiler: yes they will.
I'm old-fashioned. I read crime-novels because I enjoy the mystery and possibly want to guess along who the killer is (of course I also care about the characters but the main thing for me is the mystery). If your main-question is suddenly not 'Who did it?' but 'Will the hero be able to prove his innocence?' and I already know the answer to this question I don't see the point in reading the story.
4. Not yet finished with crime. I love amateur-sleuths. I don't love it when they meddle with the police-investigation and keep vital information from them for no good reason. Though I am willing to suspend my disbelief when it comes to 'a good reason': Daisy from my much-loved Ladiy Daisy-,mysteries by Carola Dunn is married to a Scotland Yard detective and he is OK with her snooping around because people trust her easily and tell her things they wouldn't tell him.
Realistic? Not that much but the author aknowledged the issue and that's really all I'm asking.
I'm also willing to accept 'We are snowed in and the police won't be able to reach us' but am not so happy with 'the policeman in charge is a stupid bastard who has already made up his mind that this clearly innocent person is the killer and won't listen to reason' because it's really cheap.
5. Infodumping a character's backstory. I really don't know when that became so popular but the number of times I read books where a character appeared for the first time and we get immediately told everything about his childhood and past trauma is depressing.
6. I can't tell you because...reasons. If a whole plot point is that you have two characters who are able to communicate with each other directly/telepathically/by carrier pidgeons about important things but one keeps information from the other because of worries that it would upset them/anger them/make them sleep badly and then all hell breaks loose because of that...don't.
7. Mostly concerning fantasy-novels: Quantity over quality when it comes to e.g. magical creatures. Look! We have unicorns! and flying lions! and rabits with antlers! fire-breathing mice...stop. Show me only two or three and tell me more about them. Are they friendly or not? Rare or a pest?
8. Insta-Love. Do I have to say more?
9. Repeated end-of-chapter cliffhangers. If you think the only way to keep me reading your book is by ending every chapter with a shocking relevation/a character in mortal danger (or rather: looking like the character is in some danger but it ends up being just a false alarm after thre lines) you are a) wrong and b) achieve the opposite.
10. Rounding this up with another crime-novel trope: the main-character knows who the killer is already about 100 pages before the end but refuses to tell it others (or the reader) because of...reasons.
2
5