I never feel like I can play along with the sleuths at their own pace.ĭespite my issues, Balliett does a wonderful job cramming Chasing Vermeer full of all sorts of disparate facts and figures. The coincidences just seem to coincidental to me and I am either frustrated by the fact that I knew who the culprit/murderer was from the start or I never saw it coming. Over the past twenty-five years I have dabbled in everything from Agatha Christie to Ayelet Waldman's Mommy-Track mysteries and I just can't get over the way mysteries play out. For some reason, I can suspend my disbelief to read a fantasy or science fiction novel but I cannot do this when reading a mystery. Before I go any further I have to state a personal quirk as an adult reader. While Konigsburg focuses on the interior lives of Claudia and to some extent, her brother Jamie, Balliett focuses on Calder and Petra, classmates and awkward new friends who are brought together by a series of odd coincidences. Chasing Vermeer is, above all else, a mystery story where as From the Mixed-up Files is at its heart a story about personal growth, emotional connections and change. Although both books concern mysterious or disappearing works of art by well known artists, the similarities end there. It is so hard for me to read Chasing Vermeerby Blue Balliett without thinking of EL Konigsberg's masterpiece, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs basil E Frankweiller.
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