WhackJobs
Another somewhat disappointing read, only because i had such high expectations. So many people have recommended this author to me, but i had so many issues with this book! I don't know if it was because of the era it was written, or just Cornwell's personal tastes or her writing ability but this book didn't do it for me.
What i did enjoy was the mystery. pretty sure there was no way i could have solved it before Kay did, the answer pretty much came out of no where, but i enjoyed it none the less. The whole entire time i had fun trying to figure out who was the killer, and suspects kept getting ticked off the list one by one as they all ended up dead, it was good fun.
I also enjoyed Cornwell's knowledge on mental illnesses, definitely out of date by now, but she knew her stuff (i suspect she still does) what she wrote was easy to understand and very interesting. Not many authors go into such in-depth perspective about why someone is acting a certain way when it pertains to the mentally ill, they just claim there sick, insane, messed up, not explaining that in some cases they can't help it and they need help, that they might in fact be good people who are suffering from something terrible (not in this case, the murderer was a looney who definitely needed to be locked up for everyone's safety) but it was nice that she went there.
Otherwise pretty much everything else i did not enjoy. Kay herself got on my nerves, not a lot, but now and then. She at least wasn't a bigot or a terrible person but her obsession with her ex drove me a little bonkers, especially at really inappropriate times. focus on the case women!! people are dying!! important clues may be missed!! plus she had a weird way of handling her partner, and she was a pretty big loner, she never fully connected with anyone, myself included. And its difficult to like a character when you can't connect to them.
Now her police partner, Marino, Ugh. Man he was such a D-pimple. What an ass. I can't believe some of the things he said! after the 3rd time of him saying 'faggot' i wanted to chuck the book out the window. I imagine this was a regular, perhaps normal attitude males had in the early 90s but didn't make it any better for me when it came to reading it. The weird thing is he wasn't a complete and terrible person, sometimes i hated him, i never actually liked him, but he had his moments. To me he felt more like a real living person then the main character, his traits, even if occasionally terrible, made him seem believable and realistic. Kay was just bland. I like how he worried about her in his weird marcho way, trying to order her around and protect her, she didn't accept it and i was glad cause ordering around people isn't cool, but it was his way of reaching out, telling her he cared about her safety, in the only way he knew how and i thought the author captured that really well. So at times while he might have been a bit of a terrible person he wan't a complete monster. plus i occasionally had mad respect for his interrogation skills, he botched it most of the time with his anger and impatience, but sometimes he did a fantastic job.
We won't talk about the love interest. Lets just say it was ridiculous and made me think less of Kay. Yes i know it's not nice of me, but come on women, he lied so many times! and as soon as he goes 'but this time I'm telling the truth' you believe him!! UGH at least check the facts first. thank god i have my hands on a future book (written with much more skill, I'm only a few pages in but i like it a lot more than this one already) and I'm fairly positive she's with someone else.
And that pretty much sums up the book for me. One thing which i found peculiar and amusing i want to share, was how everyone smoked inside. I vaguely remember that as a thing when i was growing up, but it never impacted me much (as you know children can't smoke and everything) as soon as they walked into a building or sat down to a meeting cigarettes or pipes were out and they were puffing away. Oh how I'm so glad the law came in to band inside smoking, so glad. i could just imagine the smell of those building in my head, yuk.
So for my first P.C book I'm rating it 3 stars. Hoping my next experience with P.C is better.
3
2
