Daughters of Freya
I've been reading Daughters of Freya for the last couple of weeks. It's a mystery; not a novel, really, but a story that's played out across emails to and from the main character. You get these emails in your inbasket a few times throughout the day over the course of about 3 weeks.

It has, thus far, been an absolutely fascinating experience. The writers have done a few things exceptionally well.

First of all, they've crafted wonderful voices for the characters in their emails. Journalist Sam's emails are tightly written and grammatically correct, but a little more casual when she's talking to her husband than when she's talking to her publisher. Publisher Jane's emails are business-like, even when they're personal. Son Max's emails are written in lower case and lack a lot of basic punctuation. Sam's mother's emails are written like letters but suggest just a hint of inexperience with computer things. There are even some interesting research results that are as badly formatted as every electronic plane ticket you've ever received. And then there are the mysterious brown backgrounded emails that are short and opaque but must be important.

Secondly, they've created a sense of tension and momentum. Because the emails come periodically, and on their timeline, you can't jump ahead in the story. Want to find out how it ends? That's really just too bloody bad, isn't it? You'll get the end in another week and a half. As someone who instituted a 'no novels on work nights' rule because I couldn't restrain myself from staying up all night to find out how they end, I find this both frustrating and fascinating. I have a few friends who subscribed at similar times and are reading along with me. The waiting and chatting and speculating, coupled with the joyous IMs of 'New Freya!' whenever we get one of the precious emails, make a communal experience out of something that is ordinarily a very solitary activity.

Additionally, they've worked in sub-plots nicely. It would be easy in this format to have the story stay strictly focused on the mystery at hand, ignoring the sub-plots that give a normal novel texture and heft. In this case, sub-plots about the relationships amongst the various players are woven into the fabric of the story. Some gradually gain importance and actually become central to the plot, and others, at least until now, have remained on the sidelines only.

They've also supplemented the emails nicely with other information. Links to websites with more information, the text of the stories that Sam has written, photos of the participants are all included. Most importantly, however, they're included in a natural way. A friend passes on a picture she took at a reunion lunch. A source throws in a link to some more information on the web. They don't have that 'click here' sense of being extraneous information that was rushed in on the side. The details on these is well crafted, as well. Sam's credit card bill contains not only things which are germaine to the case, but extra bits. She shops at a real high end grocer in Toronto, she has her recurring broadband internet charges on her statement.

Daughters of Freya is well worth a read for anyone who enjoys mysteries or just wants to get more email amidst their spam. At CAD$10, it's less than the price of most novels, and a great deal more fun.