The CopyCat Murders is just like that. It's a novella, a total of sixty some pages, and it gives you a quick little story to fill the gap when you're on a commute or just have some down time. From learning about the book to downloading it to reading it... maybe an hour or an hour and a half at most? I saw the tweet for this freebie on my Twitter feed - it had a nice big image and was labelled as a mystery with a little occult thrown in. So I clicked the link to Amazon and added it to my cloud. I think that was the first time I found a book that I read completely while being on Twitter.
The story starts out as a locked room mystery - always a fun read - but the mystery part is solved fairly quickly and it becomes more of a catch-the-bad-guy scenario. There's action, murder and even a splash of romance. So overall it was okay. Not great, not terrible, but okay. Like a bag of chips. The title was a little bit more of a mystery to me. Yes there was a series of murders, but I wouldn't say they were copycat. They may have shared the same modus operandi but they were definitely original to the one killer. So, would I recommend the book? Sure. It's free. It's fast. It's okay.
I think the real review here isn't the book though. It's something else. In the years I've been on Twitter finding authors, tweeting and reading tweets, following and getting followed back, I've mostly ignored the many, many book tweets that flow in a never ending stream. Sure I'll click on some links to read book reviews sometimes, maybe even sample a book at the book store, but I've never clicked on a book link directly from Twitter. Why would I? There's just not enough information. It's social media. Why would I buy a book based on on 120 characters of synopsis? I'll read a few book reviews, maybe visit the odd book blog and check out the book stores where I buy books. But I've never even thought of picking up a book while I'm on Twitter or Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr or any other place I'm connecting with people. To me, the social sites just peak your interest. There's still all that research you have to do as to whether or not you actually want to pick up, buy and read that book. So this was an eye opener for me. Apparently it is possible to click on a book link from Twitter IF the book has a picture. IF the book is free. IF the book is short. And IF it's a genre I like. Of course that's a lot of ifs. No wonder I've never found a book on Twitter. But I guess... maybe... it is possible.
