Review And Analysis Of The Novel Ever Told By Benjamin Bremasi
Benjamin Bremasi’s debut novel Ever Told checks all the boxes for a classic locked-room mystery. A group of ten — four brothers, two spouses, three kids, and a family friend—go on a week-long vacation in an old Victorian house. At the end of three days, two will be dead, murdered in a room that was locked from the inside. The police holds one brother as the primary suspect, but evidence hints at a possible accomplice. New Hampshire detectives Jill Jennson and her partner, Caiden Mathews, step in to unravel the mystery. In typical whodunnit fashion, the narrative cycles to all the characters, allowing readers to make a case for the guilt or innocence of each.
I look for three things in my locked-room mysteries: a competent detective, a compelling cast of supporting characters, and a brilliant twist. Let me start by saying that Bremasi delivers on the third, spinning a well-worn detective story (and all the tropes that come with it) into a fascinating debate of morality and psychology. The narrative switches back and forth in time, but Bremasi effectively handles the temporal aspects of the story and makes clever use of misdirection to create layers of mystery that should pose enough of a challenge to the casual reader.
Unfortunately, the entire novel reads more like a first draft rather than a first edition. As cliché as this sounds, the prose has too much telling and not enough showing. There’s also an exasperating tendency to state the obvious, leaving nothing to imagine or infer. “I simply smile at her. The creepiest smile that I can muster, ” thinks one character as a prelude to his villainous act. As Jill deals with a sinister stalker who successfully eludes her, the narrative continues to explain, “Since she had announced her name and status out loud, she knew that it wasn’t an officer investigating the scene or they would have answered her. ” Regrettably, much of the text was too on the nose.
The writing problems carry over to the characterization. By standards of both fact and fiction, Jill and Caiden come across as very inept at their job. I don’t understand how they could readily discuss the case with a civilian and carelessly leave evidence in full view of the said outsider. Tony, Jill’s father and a retired police officer, isn’t any better. Suggesting that his daughter go back to the scene of the crime—alone, without back-up, and in the dark—just doesn’t seem very smart…or fatherly. In addition, the dialogues have a way of estranging the reader from the characters. I must admit that Caiden’s humor went over my head (“She’s my personal sex slave, ” he says of his wife), and most of the characters are too self-aware for comfort. I wish I’d seen a bit of self-doubt and some complexity and depth in the characters’ introspections.
If possible, I would rate Ever Told 2. 5 stars. The weakness of the main cast and the underdeveloped side characters don’t lend the novel any favors, but there’s a staggering twist that might make this 116-page story worth delving into, especially for detective fiction enthusiasts looking to solve their next puzzle. However, there are several typographical errors in the text (e. g. , “their dead” instead of “they’re” dead; “pervious date” instead of “previous date”; “beat red” instead of “beet red”), missing punctuations, and several erroneously capitalized words. With the lack of editing, I have to round down the rating to 2 out of 4 stars.
