Review: The Frame-Up

The Frame-Up by Meghan Scott Molin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I got this book free as a Kindle First Read - or whatever they’re calling it nowadays

This book sits at the intersection of a lot of genres and sub-genres. It’s a mystery, but it’s not told from the point of view of the detective. This causes it to share a bit of DNA with the thriller genre as there are a few times our protagonist finds herself in the middle of something big. It’s also got a giant dose of geek/nerd culture with lots of references. Some will be rather easy for most people to get now that geek/nerd culture is a bit more mainstream. Others are pretty deep cuts. There’s also a bit of a romance novel hidden in here. And a dip into LGBT culture as well. So, it’s a book with a little of something for everyone.

Primarily it’s a mystery and I think Molin does a good job of setting up various red herrings and twists. All the information is there to make the right guess, but it’s there’s always just enough doubt to keep it entertaining.

I thought the narrative voice was fine and, once I got used it, I enjoyed being in MG’s head. It helps that she has some character growth because I wasn’t all the way on team MG when the book opened up.

If I had to ding the book on one thing, it’s that the board room scene seems a bit cartoonishly bad. I’m not saying there isn’t misogyny or sexism coloring meeting results - I’ve seen it happen to colleagues, but this was almost Abott and Costello levels of idea-stealing. Like, picture this scene you’d seen in a million Mel Brooks movies or cartoons:

Person 1: “Hey I think we should go to McDonald’s.”
Person 2: “No, that’s a horrible idea.” Thinks for a while. “What we should do is go to McDonalds!”
Person 1 mugs at the camera and/or looks exasperated.

So it took me out of the book a little. But not enough to hate it - like I said, the plot is fun and I wanted to see how the mystery was resolved.

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