Appolonia
New Member
An open mystery can allow the author to explore the personalities and motives of the villain(s). One of the few flaws I found in the otherwise outstanding book Nine by Jan Burke was the villains were revealed early in the book. And who were they? Two-dimensional, bored, rich and self-indulgent guys, with no clear motive. What was worse, the time spent on these caricatures took away from time that could have been spent exploring the “good guys”, who were truly fascinating with intriguing backstories. It left me wanting more, and that wasn’t a good thing in this case. My own opinion is if it is an open mystery there should be a good reason for writing it that way.