It’s a mystery to me, sort of

Recently read T.T. Monday’s The Setup Man: A Novel. While I found it a page-turner, it reinforced why I don’t like mysteries.

I’m not a student of literature. I have no creative writing or fine arts degree. (There are no initials after my name.)  I have great respect for good writers of the genre; they have a lot to keep track of in order to be convincing. You can’t just introduce a piece late in the story and suddenly everything is cleared up (deus ex machina). You also have to make the characters believable — relative to fiction, of course —  and try to avoid cliches/stereotypes.

But the area of mystery has always left me a bit unfulfilled. You read 300 pages (although Setup is just 272) only to have things come together at the very end (duh), with perhaps an epilogue/wrap-up. Hopefully, there’s not too much in the way of filler or red herrings that just don’t go anywhere. And if you happen to “solve” the story early on?

So I will just say I found the personal baseball story of the protagonist — the eponymous setup man, with the insecurity of the life of an athlete themes — interesting and true-to-life. The rest? Who knows? I felt it somewhat formulaic, reminding me of a cross between the “Mickey Rawlings” series by Troy Soos and Robert B. Parker’s Spenser books. You have an “frenemy” relationship with a character who may or may not be trustworthy; a love interest; and an acolyte. The only thing I found missing was some representative of the law enforcement side to be a pain in the ass/adviser.

If anyone is interested, I would be happy to offer my copy. Just send an e-mail. First come, first served. Note that this is not any sort of indictment of Monday’s book, which I did enjoy as much as I would any mystery. It’s just an offer to share.