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What Happened to Lori Book 1: Genesis (Mind-Blowing Twist Thriller Duology) Kindle Edition
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J.A. Konrath
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LanguageEnglish
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Publication dateJune 5, 2019
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File size3626 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
From the Author
Q& A with author Joe Konrath
Q: Why not release both parts at once?
A: There's a copywriter term known as the curiosity gap. Essentially, it's the discrepancy between what someone knows and what they demand to know. The goal is to keep someone engaged without boring or discouraging them.
If you know your sex terms, its like edging.
So I'm literary edging.
That's what I tried to do with WHAT HAPPENED TO LORI. How we read and absorb information has fundamentally changed in the last twenty years, with the rise of the Internet and social media. I wanted to write a book that used traditional narrative structure, with conflict, rising action, and resolution, and full character arcs, and good vs evil, and engaging storytelling, and do it in a thoroughly modern way.
But I also wanted it to function as literary clickbait. Episodic TV has become the norm, with story arcs that aren't resolved until the season finale. We surf the net, going from site to site, our dwindling attention spans eager for new tibits of information.
Why not try this style with books?
Q: You said it's a gearshift novel. What's that?
A: BOOK 1 is a Did He Do It? love-triangle thriller with some unconventional elements, like the punctuation and the structure.
BOOK 2 is absolutely insane, and goes someplace wildly unpredictable. The story shifts gears, hence the term gearshift. A few movies that do this are Something Wild, From Dusk Till Dawn, Full Metal Jacket, and Psycho. These films begin with the viewer thinking they are headed in a certain direction, and then they turn on a dime and become something... different.
Q: What do you mean it has unconventional punctuation?
A: You'll understand it when you read it. I hope it catches on. It makes writing a whole lot easier, and much less intrusive for the reader.
Q: Are you doing that clickbait curiosity gap thing right now by not telling us what you mean?
A: A little. I'll give you a different example. Speaker attribution is intrusive. Saying "she said" after a line of dialog is supposedly invisible to the reader, but it's also a waste of the reader's time, and a waste of words on the page. Why should we have to read words to understand who is speaking?
I don't use speaker attribution in WHAT HAPPENED TO LORI, but that's not what I'm referring to here. There are ways around speaker attribution that don't involve new punctuation.
In LORI, I did something else. Something I've never seen before.
Q: And you think readers are going to like this?
A: Some will. Some won't. In fact, I expect that some people will absolutely hate this book. Hate it more than any book they've ever read. Because of the punctuation. Because of the structure. Because of the cliffhanger. Because I keep posing more and more questions and trickling out answers like crumbs to the starving.
Q: Sounds like more clickbait talk.
A: In a way, it is. I've written and sold decent thrillers since 2003. I wanted to try something more provocative. More modern. More catchy.
You can help by spreading the word. Tell your family, friends, co-workers, strangers, wandering animals, and anything with a pulse about WHAT HAPPENED TO LORI.
From the Inside Flap
If you're just looking for a quick checklist, here are my main series.
JACQUELINE "JACK" DANIELS THRILLERS
JACK DANIELS AND ASSOCIATES MYSTERIES
THE KONRATH DARK THRILLER COLLECTIVE
CODENAME: CHANDLER (with Ann Voss Peterson)
TIMECASTER
STOP A MURDER Solve-It Series
#1-How: Puzzles 1-12
#3-Why: Puzzles 25-36
#4-Who: Puzzles 37-48
#5-When: Puzzles 49-60
#6-Answer Book
Writing as MELINDA DUCHAMP
ALICE Series
#1-Fifty Shades Of Alice In Wonderland
#2-Fifty Shades Of Alice Through The Looking Glass
#3-Fifty Shades Of Alice At The Hellfire Club
JEZEBEL Series
#1-Fifty Shades Of Jezebel And The Beanstalk
#2-Fifty Shades Of Puss In Boots
#3-Fifty Shades Of Goldilocks
SEXPERTS Series
#1-The Sexperts - Fifty Grades Of Shay
#2-The Sexperts - The Girl With The Pearl Necklace
#3-The Sexperts - Loving the Alien
From the Back Cover
If you want something to do for the next two years and insist on reading every JA Konrath novel in the order the author recommends, here is the order:
About the Author
What Happened To Lori Book 1 and Book 2 is an experiment in thriller fiction that has never been done before. Possibly because it's a very bad idea. But Joe worked his butt off on this duology, and put more effort into it than anything he's ever done.
He hopes you like it.
Product details
- ASIN : B07SVHCJT2
- Publication date : June 5, 2019
- Language : English
- File size : 3626 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 367 pages
- Lending : Enabled
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Best Sellers Rank:
#303,466 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #2,203 in Conspiracy Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- #2,349 in Conspiracy Thrillers (Books)
- #7,072 in Crime Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Joe Konrath has written over a dozen novels in the Lt. Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels thriller series. They do not have to be read chronologically to be enjoyed, but the order is: Whiskey Sour, Bloody Mary, Rusty Nail, Dirty Martini, Fuzzy Navel, Cherry Bomb, Shaken, Stirred (with Blake Crouch), Rum Runner, Last Call, White Russian, Shot Girl, Chaser, and Old Fashioned. More coming soon.
If you love Jack Daniels and her cast of supporting characters, you should know about the Jack Daniels and Associates Mysteries, which include the titles Dead On My Feet, Dying Breath, Everybody Dies, Shot of Tequila, Serial Killers Uncut (with Blake Crouch), Jack Daniels Stories Vols 1-4, and Banana Hammock.
Wow, that's a lot of Jack.
If you like your thrillers on the dark side, check out the Konrath Dark Thriller Collective, which includes the books The List, Origin, Afraid, Trapped, Endurance, Haunted House, Webcam, Disturb, What Happened To Lori, The Nine, Close Your Eyes, and Second Coming.
Joe also wrote the Stop A Murder mystery puzzle series, where you become the sleuth and solve brain teasers to try and catch a killer.
He also wrote the sci-fi trilogy, Timecaster, Timecaster Supersymmetry, and Timecaster Steampunk. Even if you don't think you like sci-fi, give them a try. They feature Joe's well-known characters from his other series, and are insane.
With Ann Voss Peterson he wrote the Codename: Chandler thrillers, including Flee, Spree, Three, Hit, Exposed, Naughty, Fix (with F. Paul Wilson), and Rescue.
And, finally, he wrote erotica under the pen name Melinda DuChamp, also with Ann Voss Peterson.
Joe writes a lot. You should probably read everything.
You can visit Joe and sign up for his newsletter at www.JAKonrath.com/mailing-list.php
Customer reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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This story was slow. The writing had a different style that I'm not sure I like because at some points it was a little unclear to follow the plot. I hate the way he put these symbols: <> around character thoughts. Stop trying to be unique and just italicize them. Made my eyes uncomfortable and confusing at times because the author forgot to put the symbols either at the beginning or end of the thought, so I had no idea whether I was reading a private thought or dialogue.
Speaking of the characters, all of them suck. None of them are all that interesting or redeemable and quite frankly, I wouldn't have cared if all of them died at the end. I'm all for dark, imperfect characters but I cannot stand authors who come up with characters that are incredibly hypocritical, wayward, and yet want you to root for them as the "good guy" without giving any real reason for doing so. There's nothing likable about the "heroes"--Presley and Fabler.
- Presley is social justice warrior who thinks the world owes her something because she has a sick kid. Boo-friggin-hoo. You chose to have the kid now deal with its troubles.
- "Grim" is a sorry excuse for a human being. Lazy, stupid drunk who can't get his head out of his fish tank and is constantly seeking validation for his unethical behavior.
- Honestly, I liked Fabler the most out of them and that wasn't saying much. His character was flat and offered little-to-no background information about himself or Lori, except for his Army career.
Which, I gotta say, for civilians reading this book like me, you're going to be really annoyed at all the technical military jargon and tools/weapons used throughout this book because it's just mentioned and not explained. At least add a glossary of terms so we can understand. But no. The author expects us all to be military experts and know what he's talking about. Oh, and he expects you to buy the second book after the first book REVEALS NOTHING. Literally, NOTHING.
I'm thankful this was free because if I'd paid for it, I'd be angrier than I am now. This book needs written work done and serious editing. Make it shorter. Hell, why not have ANSWERS? Add a glossary. And CHAPTER BREAKS! And seriously if you're the author and you want people to read this then, I don't know, why don't you make the characters actually likable so people have a reason to continue with this flat, boring story. I was so happy when it was all over. And after all that with no answers to what happened.
Do. NOT. Add. WASTE of Kindle space. You'll be better off moving onto something else.
Turns out, the lack of speech attribution worked great. Kind of gives it the feel of a screenplay, but without it being a screenplay at all. Although maybe Konrath should consider adapting it. It would make a hell of a movie, or possibly a mini-series.
I wish the second book was available, but Konrath says he's deliberately trying to emulate modern video streaming stuff where they make us wait for resolution. (Speaking from memory, not even close to quoting him.) The problem is, I HATE it when shows do that at the end of a season and you have to wait a freakin' year to find out what happens. I understand it when an episode does it though. It's created this thing called "binge-watching" when it's done really well, and script writers are getting really good at it.
At least with this tale, we don't have to wait a year. Just until August, if I recall correctly. I've pre-ordered the second book in the duology, which is surprisingly only 99 cents for Konrath's best writing yet, but if it was available right now I would pay at least $5 for book two.
Reading this was a bit like watching Sneaky Pete (or GoT, or name your favorite suspense show.) You know you're being manipulated with the suspense setups and the cliffhangers, but you're still the effect of it despite knowing what's being done. Because it just works. Humans love stories, and we always need to know how things turn out.
But since book two isn't released already, I get the rest of my Saturday after losing the first half unexpectedly this morning when I saw the announcement about this book.
I don't know how successful Konrath has been over the years (after leading the charge into the indie publishing world) but I wish him massive success, and he just may end up getting it with this power-house of a novel.
Eagerly awaiting the second book.... dammit. :)
Either they don’t have enough faith in their writing they feel I’d. Buy the next book, or they are trying to force me to buy the next one.
If I like a writer, I will continue to buy their books.
I don’t mind a bit of a cliff hanger in a series.. like is she still alive? Who’s the watcher? Will they go find her etc... but this book stopped in the middle, literally, I was no closer to knowing what happened to lori on the last page then I was on the first!
Too bad, I did like how it was written and would have continued to buy their books..
But not now, why? Because I hate the feeling of being forced to buy the next book and who knows, will I even find out then?
Sorry.. but as a writer you have to give us readers some thing.. not every thing but some thing!
Top reviews from other countries
But actually, different people aren't introduced. Their names are mentioned but very few details are given. You don't learn about people until much later.
Despite all this, somehow the story is gripping enough that I wanted to keep reading. I really thought I was going to hate it, but I didn't.
The core of the story centres around Lori, who doesn't even make an appearance except by name. Lori is missing presumed murdered by her husband Fabler.
Fabler had been released from prison after only two years and now seems to be on an obsessional mission in his fully military-style converted home.
Lori's brother, Pilgrim or Grim as everyone calls him, who served in the Special Operations Unit with Fabler, is convinced that he killed his sister. He is trying to regain some sort of control back over his life to focus on finding out the truth.
Brought into this mix is outsider Marna Presley, who is hired by Grim to apply to an advert put out by Fabler for a woman with very specific looks and talents. Presley is again military trained and with a few adjustments to her physical appearance matches to requirements.
What follows is bizarre in the most hypnotic and compelling way. I couldn't stop reading this unpredictable addictive book. I wanted to know what was behind closed doors. Why Fabler was holding something huge a secret and what had happened to Lori?
They are all strong characters there for very different reasons, hopefully when they are all there for Lori things may really begin to take off. It is pure adrenaline rush from page one to be continued when book 2 is published.
Konrath is always a strong favourite of mine and I am loving this new direction that he is taking me in. The good news is it isn't long until the final book is published. Totally fascinated by this!
At the beginning of almost every chapter we had to sit and reread Lori's answerphone message, which just seems to be a lot of unnecessary filling to me. The daft numbers and nonsense he pins to the start of some chapters too is all a bit silly as well, and I for one can't be bothered trawling through 300+ pages of this.
So I would summarise it as an experiment that just doesn't work, I'm afraid.


















