Book Review of Master of Murder by Christopher Pike
Author: Christopher Pike
ISBN: 0-671-69059-0
Publisher: Archway Paperback
Type of book: young adult, murder, mystery, who did it
Year it was published: July 1992
Summary:
Marvin was an eighteen-year-old senior high school. He was also America's bestselling author of teenage fiction. Millions of kids read his book. In fact, his latest series-The MYSTERY AT SILVER SPRING- was the craze at his high school. But Marvin wrote under a pen name, and no one knew who he was. He was rich and famous, but he couldn't even get a date for Friday night.
Yet Marvin wanted to remain unknown. He was worried that his incredible career was aboutt ot hit a birck wall. The final installment of his famous series was overdue. His millions of fans were dying to know what was going to happen in his his series, but so was Marvin. He had no idea how the story was supposed to end.
Then one night he opens a fan letter. It has come from his publisher-in the usual way. But this letter says, "I know who you are," and the postmark is from his local town. At first Marvin is unconcerned about the letter, but then another arrives, saying more...
Soon Marvin is caught up in a web of mystery more complex and frightening than his own books. But too late he realizes that the stories he has been spinning are true.
Characters:
I have to be honest when I say that Marvin Summer disgusted me towards the end of the book. For some odd reason, for me personally anyways, this is not Pike's strongest book and its hardly memorable. Shelly Quade, the heroine of the novel is confusing and I wished that the author would have explored her more instead of Marvin. I also would have liked to know if there were any other reasons that Ann, Marvin's sister, hated Shelly. Other characters tended to be flat and not memorable. Also, not enough explanation towards Marvin's transformation at the end is given.
Theme:
Appearances can be deceiving, stories can come from reality, often things are over looked.
Plot:
Written in third person narrative from Marvin's point of view. I think there's a lot of suspension of belief involved, especially how police over looked and not question certain evidence. I know that certain things will be over looked, but come on, evidence such as Marvin described and was able to come up with a solution?
Author Information:
Christopher Pike wrote 30+ novels mainly for young adults, the most famous or well known one is The Last Vampire Saga, Final Friends and Remember Me, and his real name is Kevin McFadden. One of his books, Fall Into Darkness was created into a movie. Unfortunately he doesn’t have a website, but there is a fan club that is devoted to him. (http://www.christopherpikefanclub.com/ )
Opinion:
I would have given this book three stars but I guess I am getting slightly irritated that police and others don't know any better, and that Marvin disgusted me at the end. Unfortunately the book isn't memorable or well written and has never been one of my favorites or anything like that. Even though it was an early 1990s novel, Christopher Pike didn't do a good job on it. I also am curious about how Shelly Quade escaped a certain situation and disappointed that we don't learn. I think in many ways this one requires a huge amount of suspension of belief.
2 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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