I may have mentioned that John Sandford's Prey series of police procedurals are my favorite over all other mystery/suspense/procedurals because his characters are so darned intelligent yet understated. Yesterday I picked up the latest one, Silken Prey, at the library. I am on page 94 of this 400+ page potential bestseller and have found three --three! -- errors that should have been caught in the editing.
1. "Rose Marie's husband opened the door; he was holding the Times in one hand and a piece of jelly toast in the other."
What, he has three hands? How did he open the door with stuff in each hand? If he put something down to answer the door, why are both hands still occupied?
2. (sorry, don't remember what this one was so I cannot look for it}
3. "I've got a cabin on the Wisconsin side of the St Croix [river], north of St. Croix falls."
It's St. Croix Falls, dumbass. The falls are there, but the name of the village is St. Croix Falls.
The Prey series is still my favorite, editorial nit-picking aside. I'll let you know if that changes.
Edited to add: On the very next page there was another one. After correctly detailing the protagonist's highway route from St. Paul to St. Croix Falls via I-35 and US Hwy 8 through Chisago City, Lindstrom, and Center City, the author mislabels the highway leading north from SCF, calling it Hwy 82 instead of Hwy 87. There is only one highway leading north that the character could have taken, so why bother to disguise it? I think it is another goof. (Elder Son was a fact-checker at the NYU student newspaper during his undergrad days. Now we all know where he got his nitpicking ways. When I read the sentence in #1, above, to him he asked if the character had a foot-operated door. Yep, the acorn does not fall, etc.)
