Eeny-Meeny by M.J. Arlidge

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.