MSNBC does Wet Spot & Crime Seen
Jan. 23rd, 2008 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jenkMSNBC article on the Wet Spot. Not necessarily work-safe.
Crime Seen, by Victoria Laurie, is like the other "pyschic eye" books - funny, engaging, and very readable. (Readable is a big plus in genre.) I like a lot of the plot developments. But I am having a lot of trouble finishing this one; in fact, I wanted to throw it across the bus this morning because the main character is lying like a rug to someone she claims to love - and the man in question is acting like a borderline stalker. Frustrating to read.
Laurie likes the dynamic where the intrepid girl detective plunges into an danger while telling her skeptical cop boyfriend that she's got it under control. Boyfriend gets worried and helps save the day. Alrightie.
This time, she goes undercover investigating one of his closed cases without telling him, specifically trying to prove he got it wrong. Hard to argue that's not his business, yes? And yet she doesn't tell him. Interesting, yes?
Meanwhile, he tracks her location via the cellphone he got her and looks up who she's with when he sees her in someone else's car. This is a warning flag of abusive behavior that he does because she "doesn't always tell him what's going on". Which a) is still not acceptable behavior and b) means that the more he pursues, the more she runs/lies/evades, and they get in a nice reinforcing spiral this way.
And the fucking stupid idiot detective? Doesn't confront his stalking her or even get her own damn cellphone.
Neither of them trust each other. Neither of them admit it. Both of them are too busy denying it to talk about it. Yes, it's human. It's even human than someone who can generally tell if someone else is lying (one of her psychic abilities) doesn't know when she's lying to herself. But it's still a dynamic that I am really tired of in real life, so it really makes me lose patience and respect for the character - and a first-person murder mystery rides on the main character.
Crime Seen, by Victoria Laurie, is like the other "pyschic eye" books - funny, engaging, and very readable. (Readable is a big plus in genre.) I like a lot of the plot developments. But I am having a lot of trouble finishing this one; in fact, I wanted to throw it across the bus this morning because the main character is lying like a rug to someone she claims to love - and the man in question is acting like a borderline stalker. Frustrating to read.
Laurie likes the dynamic where the intrepid girl detective plunges into an danger while telling her skeptical cop boyfriend that she's got it under control. Boyfriend gets worried and helps save the day. Alrightie.
This time, she goes undercover investigating one of his closed cases without telling him, specifically trying to prove he got it wrong. Hard to argue that's not his business, yes? And yet she doesn't tell him. Interesting, yes?
Meanwhile, he tracks her location via the cellphone he got her and looks up who she's with when he sees her in someone else's car. This is a warning flag of abusive behavior that he does because she "doesn't always tell him what's going on". Which a) is still not acceptable behavior and b) means that the more he pursues, the more she runs/lies/evades, and they get in a nice reinforcing spiral this way.
And the fucking stupid idiot detective? Doesn't confront his stalking her or even get her own damn cellphone.
Neither of them trust each other. Neither of them admit it. Both of them are too busy denying it to talk about it. Yes, it's human. It's even human than someone who can generally tell if someone else is lying (one of her psychic abilities) doesn't know when she's lying to herself. But it's still a dynamic that I am really tired of in real life, so it really makes me lose patience and respect for the character - and a first-person murder mystery rides on the main character.
