Skip to main content

The Monet Murders

Great fun.  Terry Mott writes beautifully.  Funny, learned, a great main character who is a wonderful male fantasy. He beds every gorgeous woman he meets, leads a glamorous life, and -- unlike most detectives -- hasn't been beaten up even once.

Plot is weakest part.  Stolen Monet. Owned by a couple.  An artist friend (forger) perhaps steals the original and replaces it with a copy.  She hires our detective to find out, but she is promptly found dead--and the forger/friend is dead, too.  The accepted version is that the artist was trying to rape her or maybe rob her and that she shot and killed him. Then, for some inexplicable reason, she killed herself.  As I wrote, the weakest part.

Also weak at times is the motivation for our detective, who renamed himself Bruno just as a lark. At one point, after conceiving a plot to break into a house and switch Monet's, Bruno wakes up and asks himself why he would do this. yes, Bruno. Why?  He decides not to, but he does stay on the case just because.

It's easy to accept because earlier he bails out one of his beauties (a Croatian) who has killed a rapist. Rather than call the police, Bruno arranges to sink the body in the ocean and ditch the rapist's car--all because a scandal will hurt the lovely lady's career.  Well, Bruno, pretty stupid--but great fun to read about.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tess of the D'Urbervilles, continued 2/3rds

"To all humankind, Tess was only a passing thought. Even to friends, she was only a frequently passing thought." Angel Clare is a good character. He's "enlightened," in so many ways, but when Tess's confesses her "crime," he reverts to ancestral form . . . Tess's "confession" comes earlier than I expected, right after Angel reveals that he has had a bad moment with a woman. Tess points out the similarity in their transgressions, though his is the only true transgression, expecting forgiveness. She doesn't get it. She returns to her mother . . . realizes she can't stay with her. Thoughts to suicide. Unhappiness that divorce is not possible. Departs. Tragic in that the two, if Angel could just see clearly, would indeed be a great couple, each adding to the other.  Nature as a definite force involved in the tragedy.  It's not neutral--when things go bad, the very skies mock Tess. Tess as unaware of the power of her bea...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin . . . finished

 Follows Sadie and Sam (Mazer) from childhood to mid-thirties when both are feeling old and a bit out of it in the gaming world.  Characters are well-rounded, develop throughout the novel in interesting way.  Plot is involved but sensible.  Not a single, "Oh, come on!" moment.  The book could have been faster paced. Odd, since the main topic is video games which are not for their speed of engagement and Gabrielle Zevin clearly knows her video games. Recommended by Michael Connelly in an interview.  He also has Bosch pick up the book in his novel, Resurrection Walk, as Bosch tails a possible witness to a crime as she moves through a bookstore. Sadie and Sam do not get together at the end, which is good.   Marx killed by homophobic nutcase who really wants to kill Sam, but Sam isn't there. Marx is father of Sadie's child. 
Post a Comment
Read more