The Dying Wish (Quick Reads) [Import] [Paperback]

COURTTIA NEWLAND (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: ABACUS (2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0349119635
• ISBN-13: 978-0349119632
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 7.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,413,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Too Much Time Wasted On Backstory of Main Character, Convenient Ending Also Lets This Short Story Down, March 30, 2011

By 

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Dying Wish (Quick Reads) (Paperback)

At times Newland's The Dying Wish pokes a smidgen of a good story through the pages every now and then. However it takes a long time to reach the main part of the plot, with the first half of the book wasting time on the main character PI Ervine James interacting with his office colleague, her kid which he picks up from school and recounting previous cases he worked on (I haven't read Newland's other books so am unsure if this character is from other books but if he is there's some serious spoilers of those plots given away). When the plot starts to kick off, of the discovery and hiring by local cops of PI James to get to the bottom of a company that buys the suicides and carries them out of those to cowardly to do it themselves, it gets sidetracks by the character attending a boring dinner, where James listens to the complaints of a friend about her roommates and the fact they're not putting in the effort to get a job. The actual suicide company interaction parts of the story are pretty interesting, there's lot of opportunities for the short story to follow some interesting paths such as a racist corporate boss being interviewed by PI James (who is dark skinned). However space seems to have run out to follow them. Disappointingly James learns the entire suicide corporation's history and operations by a convenient unloading of his burden by a character. Likewise he doesn't get out of a predicament at the end due to his own actions but instead is simply saved as the police turn up. If less of the 110 pages had been wasted on the irrelevant boring history, life and dinner of the main character and instead used to develop the suicide company scenes and ending this book could have been a great short story.

The Dying Wish is part of the Quick Reads series of books to increase literacy levels by encouraging those who don't like to read beyond magazines and comic books to try fiction through cheap priced short story length fiction and non fiction. The problem with The Dying Wish though is I don't think those reading this will be encouraged to pick up another book. There are some really good short stories in the Quick Reads series, this just isn't one of those.