Me, Myself and Why?: 07/02/15

Me, Myself and Why? by MaryJanice Davidson is the first of the Cadence Jones mystery series. There are two and a short story as of writing this review. Let me be upfront and say I don't plan to read further.

Here's the thing — the mystery genre has the following elements: a crime, a detective, the hunt for clues, the catching of the criminal, and a short wrap up.For the niche mysteries — cozies, for example, there's also a gimmick. Typically the detective isn't just a detective. Either he or she is specialized in something, has a special attribute, or is an amateur who actually works in another profession but finds himself or herself around crime on a regular enough basis to support a series of mystery books.

In the case of Me, Myself and Why? Cadence Jones works for a special branch of the FBI that hires people the regular branches of law enforcement won't hire for all sorts of reasons. Cadence's special talent is that she has multiple personalities and that somehow makes her better at tracking down serial killers.

So each chapter break is determined by when a different "sister" makes an appearance. Cadence, though, doesn't seem to have any memory of either of the other sisters taking charge or what happens while they are. Since neither of these additional personalities claim to be part of the FBI, I don't see how Cadence or her employer get any added benefit from these essentially long periods of black out.

Then there's the serial killer. Serial killers make for boring mystery plots. They are repetitive. They get in the way of the sleuthing part of the book. They add in unnecessary violence when all that's really needed is a good scavenger hunt by way of the evidence.

Three stars

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