No Rest For The Dead - Book Review [Touchstone]

The notion of a novel written by a different author for every chapter (and especially authors with franchises) is a tall order. The question becomes not overdoing the sense of storytelling or wanting to make the style too inherently different from the person before you. This, in texture, requires a good editor and effective relationships with all the writers involved through a central core."No Rest For The Dead" [Various/Touchstone/272pgs] is a neat experiment because it is not an anthology but rather almost a "Choose Your Own Adventure" of sorts for the authors. Even though they have to stay within the structure they make little details their own. Personally, it would be interesting to see how this all worked out behind-the-scenes since the details are the jewels of these different writers where the intelligence of the turn is a guarded process.The story in question within this book is about a woman who is convicted of murdering her husband (who himself was a philandering dog). The evidence points to her but various people involved either couldn't believe it or had something to hide. It plays out much like a modern day Clue (which actually is not a bad basis).The beginning builds on certain periphery elements and events (including the husband's fencing of stolen art through his position as curator of a museum which his well-off wife sponsors). The story then picks up ten years later with the words of the wife who was sentenced to death and killed by injection. A diary she entrusted on her final night brings everyone together for a memorial. The story is perceived from different people who believe they have a different part of the puzzle solved. This is where the different perceptions of the authors work well since each or even a couple of them seem to identify with certain characters (whether it be the disavowed cop, the jealous boyfriend, the jilted wife or perhaps the ambitious floozy). The key is that everyone has their own perceptions even though certain characters ultimately are to blame in the end."No Rest For The Dead" is an interesting experiment allowing for a structured progression of story and character which both stays simple but allows the authors to spread a little bit of nuance around.B