Wit's End

Just before I went to the beach, I read Wit's End by Karen Joy Fowler. This book is about a young woman named Rima Lansill who comes to visit her godmother, Addison Early, a mystery writer, at her home in Santa Cruz, California. Rima is recently orphaned and there is a mystery about the relationship between her godmother, her father, and one of the Addison's book where a man with her father's name was the murderer. I'd call this book a near miss. The atmosphere for this book was great -- I loved the setting. There are very interesting characters. There are many twists and turns in the book. However, it didn't jell for me. I didn't like Rima much. The central mystery didn't come together for me. I'm not even sure what the central mystery was.
One of the difficulties was that Fowler had some plots from Addison's books and some plots from Rima's reality. I couldn't keep them straight. There was a lot of blurring of reality between those strands and it didn't work for me.

One of the themes about the book is about the use of the Internet and virtual reality games. That should have appealed to me more than it did. I did enjoy the fictional books and the fictional detective.

I wish I had been able to post my opinion immediately after I read it because I've forgotten a lot about the book. I had trouble putting it down but my immediate reaction after finishing it was disappointment.