The Man Who Knew Too Much Was by G K Chesterton. The Reader Who Lost The Plot Was Me

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

There are moments (thankfully few) as a reader when I'm reading a novel and then find myself stopping. Metaphorically looking around the fictional place that I'm in only to realise....that I've lost the plot.

When that happens you have as a reader three options. Option one is to put the book down and go for another one. That I'd never do.

Option Two is to start again. But personally unless I have some idea as to where I need to reread (assuming it's my fault) it's not for me.

And so it leaves option three. Plough on and hope that there comes a moment that you grab onto something tenuous and think to yourself. "Yes I'm back. I know what this is about". Trouble is it rarely works.

The other thing is that you, the reader, do not know whether the fault lies with you or the writer. Though if the writer doesn't allow you any possibility of catching up with the plot you'd like to think it's the scribe to blame....if only to sooth your ego.

Must admit I did not expect this to happen to me reading The Man Who Knew Too Much by G K Chesterton but there you are. Was reading it on my Kindle when it dawned on me that I'd no idea what was going on.

Certainly things seem to move at speed. There are chases, deaths but also characters that receive a prominence in a chapter only to be left from then on. A schoolboy, an Italian prince, the only female that seemed to warrant a mention of more than a page. All appeared, then tossed away. The same with locale. All moving at a pace but no idea as to why.

There is at the end an explanation of sorts that made no sense to me whatsoever. Politically it seemed to have something to do with "the Irish question" though exactly why I just do not know.

Think I should have renamed this post "Spoiler alert.....If Only".

So the next book out of the pile of the great ebook unread is. The Positive School of Criminology. Three Lectures Given at the University of Naples Italy by Enrico Ferri. An unusual choice you might think. Until I explain that this was at the time when I was first given the Kindle as a present and with the frenzy of a child given carte blanche at a sweet shop downloaded loads of books with the key connection that they cost nothing at all.

That included The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Until the next time.