I read a lot of novels. Many of them are crime fiction that I download free of charge, thank goodness.
There are a lot of bad authors out there. I tip my hat to all of them, even the bad ones, since I have never been able to write a novel, much as I have wanted to.
I bring this up because so many of them, good authors and, in my opinion, bad, make the same mistakes.
How many times have I read the sentence, "Suddenly his phone rang."? In your experience has a phone ever not rung "suddenly"?
Then there is this one that occurs in slightly different forms depending on the context, but far too often,
"At 1:13AM on the night of ...". or,
"Let's meet tomorrow morning at 7AM."
Drives me crazy.
While I am at it, another thing of a similar nature but not related to books. Sayings that mean nothing.
My all time favorite.
"You always find it in the last place you look."
This is true. If it is in the first place you look you stop looking which makes it the last place you look.
