Journal Entry #7

I am evaluating the novel Play Dead by Harlan Coben, who is a New York Times best selling author. This novel merits evaluation because Harlan Coben is a popular author. His books are my favorite and Play Dead is his first book that he recently released but wrote at the age of 20. Play Dead is a mystery novel which is functional because you can read a book. The novel is a lot like other mystery novels with suspense and action. However, I chose to write about this novel because Coben just released the book. He decided not to change anything in it because he is proud of his first book. The book is about a pro-basketball killer who gets killed while walking on the beach during his honeymoon. Laura, his wife, refuses to give up until the mystery of her husbands death is solved.To evaluate the novel I will need to establish the value of the book and why I chose to evaluate it. I will introduce the novel as the first book written by Harlan Coben and suggest that it needs to be evaluated because he is known for his mystery novels. Again, the category of the object is a mystery novel. To evaluate the novel I will first evaluate based on the criteria of the character development. Developing characters in a mystery novel is important because it is hard to follow the plot of a mystery novel if the characters are not easily remembered. I think Coben does a good job of this in his novel. Laura, a female supermodel is very well developed in the story. She, along with her husband David are the main couple in the story so it is important to know a lot about them. Personally, I believe a mystery novel should be suspenseful. I will also evaluate the novel based on the criteria of being suspenseful. In this aspect, the novel does a good job in bringing you in and keeping you hooked. Thirdly, I will evaluate the book based on the criteria of a successful climax. A defining moment needs to be present in every mystery novel. I haven't gotten to the climax in Play Dead, because I am still currently reading it, so I can't evaluate that part until I have completed the novel. Another criteria that the novel can be evaluated on is the resolution. Again, I can't evaluate the book's resolution until I have finished it but I think every mystery novel should have somewhat of a closure unless there is going to be a second novel. Readers are not satisfied with a novel if it leaves them confused and seems unfinished so evaluating the resolution is a big part of evaluating a novel. Lastly, the opinions of the reader are obviously important in evaluating novels so I could evaluate the book based on the reviews it received. A book can not be considered successful unless it is popular among readers so evaluating the reviews of the novel is important.