Day 7 - least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise
Hmmm...this is a tough question. I think my least favorite plot device employed by way too many books I actually enjoyed would have to be the red herring which diverts the reader away from something significant. These are very common in mystery, horror and crime stories. The typical example is in whodunits, in which facts are presented so that the audience is tricked into thinking that a given character is the murderer, when actually another character is. While it is an excellent plot device, it drives me NUTS when I think I know the answer and find out that I do not.
My least favorite plot device is when the killer in a mystery novel is the person who seems they would never be the killer (i.e. The heroine's best friend). It is so overused that I can tell who the killer is early on. I like to be kept guessing and I do not like a novel to be so predictable.
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