Personal Effects: Dark Art by J.C. HutchinsRemember Cathy’s Book? That's the one with all the fun little clues that come with it, so you become more of an active participant in the book (I know, right, like when you pick a book up the first thing on your mind is how you can be more active). But anyways, I was excited to see an adult book in the same format, so I checked it out. It’s about Zachary Taylor (no, not the president, but as it turns out a distant relative), an art psychologist at a creepy institution in NYC. He’s in charge of determining whether a man was responsible for the gruesome murders of 11 people. Even though he has solid alibis, he admits to committing the crimes, so it’s up to Zach to figure it out. Well, although this had more mystery than the Eyre Affair, a lot of it was on account of creepy paranormal goings-on. Then there are the clues that come with the book. I’m still not sure what some of them were about (I guess I’m not much of a detective). There were also websites to visit and phone numbers to call. I visited the Taylor family tree website. I think I was supposed to find something incriminating, but it was a big site! It looked real with a lot of different pages. I just couldn’t be bothered, I wanted to continue reading the book. In the end, the clues were supposed to meld the story together, but it ended up flat with some loose ends. Maybe the phone numbers and websites would have helped, but for some of it, I’m not so sure. It’s definitely worth a try if you want a different kind of experience out of a book, but be prepared for a weak plot.
