![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Yet I know I’ll keep reading it for as long as I enjoy popular fiction, and I suspect that it may eventually become the novel I’ll read more than any other. I’ve read The Silence of the Lambs from cover to cover on perhaps ten occasions, and I’ve seen the unsurpassed movie version at least as many times, so it’s safe to say that it no longer holds many shocks or surprises. But after you’ve revisited a novel enough times, it can be hard to explain what keeps you coming back. If enough time has passed, the details can get a little fuzzy, so it can be fun to revisit the mystery again-I’m not sure I could tell you who the killer was in The Three Coffins or Rim of the Pit, mostly because the culprit’s identity is secondary to more immediate pleasures. After our first read, we know who did it and why, whether the hero will survive, and whether the villain will get away with it: we’ve seen every chase, every reveal, every twist of the plot. What makes a novel worth reading more than once? In the case of a mystery or thriller, the answer isn’t always clear. For earlier entries in the series, please see here.) (Note: For the last two weeks, I’ve been counting down the ten works of fiction that have had the greatest influence on my life as an author and reader, in order of their first publication. ![]()
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