there ought to be a rule about using certain tricks. I'm thinking in particular of dead mothers and/or dead children, along with decapitation and using a literal conflagaration as the climax of a story. a book I'm about to finish does all three, and while it's unarguably well-written, I feel suspicious, as if it's too easy. authors should have to apply to a Board of Overused Tricks: Please sir, may I borrow the Search for Identity Through Parentage? I promise only to use a little bit, in the top left-hand corner...