Disappointing Reads
I'm in Penang for a self-imposed 'reading holiday'.
Since arriving late Thursday, I've
For 14 months in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 10 women have mysteriously disappeared, presumedly abducted and killed, but no have been bodies found. Former Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia and coroner extraordinaire Kay Scarpetta is 'lured' by a prisoner on death row, a French madman by the name of Jean-Baptiste Chandonne into the case.
Chandonne was nicknamed the Werewolf due to his abnormally abundant body hair and facial disfigurement. By comparsion, his fraternal twin, Jay Talley, is described as a blonde Aryan god. As a tag team, they preyed on women: Jay would get and bed the woman, then leaving her to Chandonne to be, er, devoured.
Chandonne was captured and sentenced only because he had tried to kill Scarpetta in a previous novel and is obviously still obssessed with her. In fact, so is Jay, who is still at large with his girlfriend and errand girl, Bev Tiffin. In another fact, it is Jay and Bev who have been abducting and kiling the women in Baton Rouge.
What follows is a cat-and-mouse game between the authorities and the killers, interspersed with a plot to bring down the rich and powerful Chardonne family who is involved in the organised crime. So you could say that Chardonne and Talley don't exactly come from good stock.
Incidentally, the ones involved in the operation to break the crime ring are Scarpetta's niece Lucy Farinelli and Scarpetta's long-time friend and associate, Pete Marino, with a little help from Scarpetta's ex-boyfriend and FBI head honcho, Benton Wesley.
Oh yeah, Benton Wesley was supposed to have been killed six years ago by Jay Talley. But apparently he was not and is now on a witness protection programme. However, Scarpetta doesn't know this and thinks that he is very dead. Hence, her downward spiral emotionally.
I've read all, if not most, of Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta novels so I think that I'm in a good position to say this: Blow Fly is a big disappointment cop-out.
Cornwell has made a major backtrack and introduced an incredulous plot twist to explain this backtrack that I can neither fathom or accept. I kept hoping that she would present a stronger and more valid reason to do so but there was none.
Wesley's death some two novels and six years ago should have been maintained. He was a major influence in the Kay Scarpetta's series and was a trigger for many threads and plots, sure, but his violent death, while shocking at the time, made what Scarpetta had been dealing with even more poignant and raised her character in my eyes. This new development has made me pity her because it's seems to playing with her already fragile mind.
Because I couldn't wrap my head around his resurrection, I couldn't relate to the whole story which spoiled it for me. Sure, Cornwell has tried to tie up everything nicely but what use is the nice fancy ribbon if the wrapping paper has many holes in it? She seems to be trying to milk an exhausted series and has resorted to this because she has run out of ideas.
Following Blow Out, I wanted to purge myself of the violence and went into PS, I Love You. The premise was nice although not novel: a young, grieving widow, Holly Kennedy, discovers that her husband, prior to his death, had prepared monthly loves notes for her to get through the rest of the year.
We follow her then as she refuses and then tries to move on with her life with his 'encouragement'.
OK, so it was sappy. One-third into the book, I was flipping the pages to the part where the husband's notes were revealed in the beginning of each month. There are certain parts which touched my heart certainly, especially when Ahern describes Holly's grief and yearning. And I could understand Holly's touching adherence to the instructions left by her husband as she desperatesly tries to cling to his memory.
However, the story didn't engage me and couldn't sustain my interest. Which was a pity as there are parts where it was good but they were few and far between.
Maybe, since this was her first book, Cecilia Ahern will do better next time. Apparently, the book's been sold to Hollywood. As a point of interest, she's also the daughter of Ireland's current prime minister.
These two books have not dampened my determination to go through some more books in the next few days, though. Onwards!
Interviews with Patricia Cornwell:
The Guardian UK
NY Journal News
Interviews with Cecilia Ahern:
The Globe And The Mail
The Guardian UK
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