Killing the Shadows (Val McDermid) Chapters 30-43

There are certainly enough words in this book to fill up the 600 pages.  But still not enough story.  The plot inches forward steadily, feeding out one small development at a time.  The more dramatic events that could have been stretched with more detail to good effect – such as the search and discovery of Georgia Lester’s body parts – don’t get any more play than the almost catty conversations between Fiona and Sarah Duvall.  It’s as if each plot development was given the same amount of space, regardless of the amount of interest it can generate.

Speaking of Sarah Duvall; what a superb portrayal of professionalism and solid police work!  The admiration we might be expected to reserve for Fiona has shifted to Sarah, and I find myself rooting for this “supporting role” character over the protagonist.  Is this intentional?  Are we being set up to find that Duvall is deeply flawed after all?  That would be interesting.  At Sarah’s introduction to the reader, it is mentioned that she is Black, but then almost carefully avoided for some reason.  The combination of traits reminded me of Queen Latifah’s role in the movie Stranger Than Fiction, in which the actress plays a very strong-minded, down-to-earth assistant to Emma Thompson’s portrayal of the fiction writer (excellent movie!  See it if you haven’t!)  I love Queen Latifah, and she would fill the role in this book beautifully!

Writing idiosyncrasies continue to stick out glaringly.  I don’t like to criticize these too harshly, because they don’t really mar the book that much, but the observation that So-and-so “pulled a face” is overused to the point of annoyance.  Maybe in McDermid’s Scotland, “pulling a face” is more than just a quaint colloquialism, I don’t know.  I’m not even sure I can pin down what it means with any precision.  I just hope she’s finished using it.

Fiona’s inability to remain professional in the light of danger to her Significant Other, Kit, continues to be grating.  The author probably means to show how vulnerably human Fiona is, which is fine, but it has become more than that – it has become a glaring flaw in the psychologically adept protagonist’s own psychological makeup.  Steve points out to her that her judgment is being compromised; “‘If this didn’t touch Kit, you’d be the first to say we should avoid giving this killer the oxygen of publicity.’  ‘Yes, Steve, I probably would,’ Fiona said angrily.  ‘But it does touch Kit, and I owe him far more than I owe the City of London Police.’”  Being willfully illogical doesn’t endear her to us.  Oh well, there are still 150 long pages left to redeem our attachment to her…

I like a colorful metaphor as much as anyone; Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut and Dean Koontz, to give three examples, have made me pause mid-paragraph many times to admire a particularly well-constructed metaphor or comparison.  This author is not as adept as some.  (Again, I feel so petty pointing these things out, because there is so much about McDermid’s prose that is good.  But these things stick out, at least to an American Southwesterner like myself.)  Example: “Steve Preston, claiming there was more to life than the job?  It was about as likely as Bart Simpson joining the diplomatic service.”  Hmmm.  Maybe in some parts of Scotland, Bart Simpson is known chiefly for his lack of diplomatic skills; again, I don’t know.  If so, I think maybe a lot of Scots may be missing the point of the characterization of Bart Simpson.  Maybe The Hulk would have been a better choice for this metaphor?



Next Week: Chapters 44-Epilogue 

October’s book of the month; “'Salem's Lot,” by the incomparable Stephen King!

Stephen King's second book, 'Salem's Lot (1975)--about the slow takeover of an insular hamlet called Jerusalem's Lot by a vampire patterned after Bram Stoker's Dracula--has two elements that he also uses to good effect in later novels: a small American town . . . and a mixed bag of rational, goodhearted people, including a writer, who band together to fight that evil.  Simply taken as a contemporary vampire novel, 'Salem's Lot is great fun to read, and has been very influential in the horror genre. But it's also a sly piece of social commentary… - Amazon.com Review  

Before vampires became sympathetic characters with their own alternate worlds, complete with vampire coffee shops and vampire politics, they used to be bad guys, scary not sexy, and they preferred wreaking havoc in horror novels rather than exuding tortured sensitivity in YA coming-of-age fiction. Fortunately, we don’t need to go all the way back to Dracula and Boris Karloff to remember those halcyon days: we have Stephen King’s ’Salem’s Lot, from 1975. - Booklist

Week 1:  Chapters 1-4 

(First post, 10-10-14)

Week 2:  Chapters 5-9
Week 3:  Chapters 10-13
Week 4:  Chapters 14-Epilogue