Let
me get the synopsis over quickly. In the
end, it sucked. The author gets points
for edginess and points for an audacious psychological plotline. As a first novel, he over-extends his
welcome, blows his wad on a first attempt by running out of steam, and then
forcing the last half of the story into illogical and unbelievable situations.
The
conversation with MJ [at the end] bears ignoring.
The
Discussion Questions are easily dismissed: (1) Biblically, murder is wrong, no
two ways about it; (2) Helen is classically flawed – should have died in the
end; (3) Gender is not a factor [ERA] in career suitability; (4) Freedom of the
press is the law of the land; (5) a contrived choice about Mark; (6) a
contrived Point-In-Time analysis; (7) Text never gets into “the divide” between
public and private; (8) It’s a Bell curve on criticism, 50-50 self-others; (9)
meaningless to analyze an anthropomorphic fictional character (10) Not a real
twist. We never knew of a sister at the beginning! (11) It’s meaningless to analyze an
anthromorphic fictional character; (12) meaningless to analyze an anthromorphic
fictional character.
Southampton
is a small city of 250,000 – half the size of Santa Rosa. It’s unbelievable that a murderer could get
away with the same MO for so long in a small town. It’s never explained how the sister continued
to get so much personal information about Helen and the investigation. Whittaker was the mole, but he should have
known far less than the sister found out; Helen wasn’t close to him and the top
dog is often kept out of the loop.
Initially
I thought this was edgy writing and thought it was nice for a change to get
away from the conservative Bostonian critics’ circle. I soon realized it was merely salacious
garbage thrown in for the movie scriptwriters to play with. Charlie is beautiful so we can see her
stripped naked at the tail end, this was not a story about women getting ahead
in the world. Helen so we can watch her
stunt-double get whipped in the X-rated version, not exactly a reprise role for
Helen Mirren.
The
instances of eeny-meeny were way too numerous.
The author must have tired of so many as well and he shortened their
period of captivity as the story went on.
The Donner Party went months: these guys caved within days, the last
pair – trained police officers. Pi
lasted all the way across the Pacific Ocean.
Why did no pair decide to draw straws on day one or two? Why did Charlie not shoot off the rat’s head?
The
U.K.’s Scotland Yard or Special Branch would have been called in almost
immediately – no one would have left things go on that long. In any reputable police organization, they
would sack Helen straightaway for taking things into her own hands.
