Weekly Reader: The Incomplete Artist (A Detective Ashley Westgard Murder Mystery) by Phillip Wyeth; More Show Less Tell is Needed In This Science Fiction Murder Mystery

 

Weekly Reader: The Incomplete Artist (A Detective Ashley Westgard Murder Mystery) by Phillip Wyeth; More Show Less Tell is Needed In This Science Fiction Murder Mystery

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: The more I review books, the more I think that it's true that every action has an equally negative or positive reaction. That sometimes in reviewing one book, its polar opposite will follow close behind.

I previously reviewed Fearghus Academy October Jewels by I.O. Scheffer, a book that combined the fantasy of a magic school, the science fiction of intergalactic travel, the horror of a supernatural mystery, the diverse powers of a superhero story, and the hardships of a Dickensian historical fiction and created a unique imaginative work. The elements shouldn't work but they do and merge beautifully.

Now we have a book where different genres are combined and don't work so well at all. Phillip Wyeth's The Incomplete Artist strives to combine the fears of technology of science fiction and the drawing locked room murder mystery of Agatha Christie. On paper, it should be interesting. I have read Science Fiction and Mysteries that have worked very well together. But in this case, it doesn't. 

Allegedly, the book is set in the near future of 2045 where Artificial Intelligence has taken over every aspect of life including the arts. Detective Ashley "Ash" Westgard attends a gallery of human artists who stand against automation and the rights to be human and express themselves in a human manner. Ash becomes involved with the wealthy and sophisticated Thomas Templeton. Later that night one of the artists, Stanley Bennett is found dead and his canvas destroyed.

The Incomplete Artist is guilty of one of the most basic rules of fiction writing: "Show, don't tell," The book is allegedly set in 2045 but we aren't shown very much of this futuristic world. 

I know, I know there probably wouldn't be much difference between 2022 and 2045. In the grand scheme of things that's 23 years, not a whole lot of time for many huge differences. I mean we laugh at movies like 2001, Blade Runner, the Terminator franchise, and Back to the Future II that showed the years as more well futuristic than we ended up getting. But if you are going to go through the trouble of telling us that we are in a futuristic world, you should go through the trouble of showing us the futuristic world.

While we are told that the world of the Incomplete Artist is bursting with artificial intelligence and technology, we aren't shown this. There are no robots working in the gallery or on the police force (the two main locations of the book). We aren't shown Ash walking around this futuristic setting being spied on by constant surveillance or looking at her information spread out on the Internet. Technology should be omnipresent for people to complain about it, but it really isn't any more present than it is now. The artists should be written as freethinkers fighting against an automated system. Instead, they come across as pretentious technophobes. 

It doesn't help that the science fiction setting is merged with the drawing room murder mystery style of Agatha Christie. A combination of genres can work really well but in this case, it doesn't. 

The trouble is science fiction relies so much on the outer world and the troubles that function in that society. This type os murder mystery is more about the internal. It's a confined space that could be set anywhere so the Science Fiction setting is unnecessary.

In fact it mimics the Agatha Christie style so well that the pace is almost glacial. The murder happens ten chapters in. Instead of getting to know the potential suspects and possible motives, the book is distracted by Ash and Thomas attempting to be a couple. Most of Bennett's connections to the suspects are later revealed in interviews. Another bit of telling rather than showing. It's not that the murderer is easy to guess, it's that the mystery is so plodding that it's hard to care.

The Incomplete Artist lives up to its name. It is incomplete as a science fiction, a mystery, or a decent novel.