Andorra: Death Has a Thousand Doors

Death Has a Thousand Doors
by Patricia Grey

Okay, so I didn't actually finish this book.  I'm not proud of this since I'm supposed to be reading one book per country and the assumption is that I will read an entire book, not just part of one.  However, I really could not waste any more time on this novel than I already had after reading more than 30% of it (Kindle version) and not finding anything at all to hook me in and make me care about the characters, have any profound thoughts or a-ha moments, or wonder what would happen next. 

It was extremely difficult to find fiction set in Andorra.  Many people have never even heard of Andorra and don't have the faintest idea where it is.  I'm proud to say that I actually had hears about this tiny nation, sandwiched in between Spain and France, in the Pyrenees mountains.  Andorra boasts less than 200 square miles of geography and only about 85,000 residents.  Because of its beautiful location and its tax laws,  each year Andorra draws more than 10 million tourists who want to ski and go shopping.  Who knew?!?!

I considered reading Peter Cameron's novel, titled Andorra, but rejected it when I realized that not only the story but also the country ... his Andorra ... is fictionalized.  I wanted the real Andorra as the setting, and if nothing else, Death Has a Thousand Doors provided that.  Upon deciding that I would not, could not, finish reading this book (a decision that I rarely make), I was perplexed about how I could be so displeased with a book that had been a finalist for an award: the Proverse Prize.  Normally, I find value in even the long-listed award books, even if I don't actually enjoy reading them, but that was not the case this time.  So I did a little research and learned that the Proverse Prize is given to "unpublished nonfiction, fiction, and poetry" and the award includes ... you guessed it ... publication of the submitted piece.  This explains a lot, and it also makes me feel a bit more generous in my critique of the book, which is why I'm not offering a long list of its faults and failings.  The author is brand new at this, and the Proverse Prize offers a chance to unpublished writers to get their work out into the public sphere.  I wish I could say I would try another Proverse Prize winner, but I cannot.  While I admire the intentions of the prize, I don't think I'd trust the Proverse panel of judges enough to spend money on another book with its endorsement.

The book, or what I read of it, is a simple mystery ... girl gets divorced, girl goes to Andorra to visit her sister, girl's sister is missing, girl begins to search for her sister, girl meets a man ... That's where I quit.  Let me know if you decide to check it out.  I'd love to know how it ends ... but not enough to spend any more time on it.

As a result of this experience, I'm adding a new rule.  I will only allow myself to quit in the middle of a book five times.  Is that too many?  I thought about saying only three times, but here I am on Andorra, with so many countries ahead of me, and I've already used up one official quit.  I think I'll allow myself five.  I'll also choose my books more wisely in the future!