Back from Cleveland Clinic . . . resuming blog
This is very well written and I will definitely give David Jackson another read . . . but . . . the basic motivation here just didn't work for me at all. Spoiler coming, so stop if you haven't finished. The whole idea of the murderer being motivated to capture birds and then plant them on the bodies of the police he kills was fine until Jackson reveals why the "birds" are so important. Our murderer, the photographer Chris, was a little boy at a soccer tragedy caused by police incompetence. 96 people died, fans of Liverpool, 1989. Liverpool has a bird crest on the uniform, so the dead were all "birds" to Chris. Just too much. Oddly, I'm guessing Jackson wanted the book as a tribute (we won't forget) to the victims. But the "birds" theme falls flat for me, ultimately trivializing what must have been a horrific event. It also seems to me that "tapping at my door" could have worked without the birds at all.
One last complaint. Nathan Cody hanging from a railing with Chris connected by a rope. His arms, we are told, come out of their sockets, and his spine is stretched excruciatingly. He feels as if he is splitting in half. Yet when Chris is shot and killed, falling to his death, Cody just climbs up and is perfectly okay. My "willing suspension of disbelief" was snapped.
This is very well written and I will definitely give David Jackson another read . . . but . . . the basic motivation here just didn't work for me at all. Spoiler coming, so stop if you haven't finished. The whole idea of the murderer being motivated to capture birds and then plant them on the bodies of the police he kills was fine until Jackson reveals why the "birds" are so important. Our murderer, the photographer Chris, was a little boy at a soccer tragedy caused by police incompetence. 96 people died, fans of Liverpool, 1989. Liverpool has a bird crest on the uniform, so the dead were all "birds" to Chris. Just too much. Oddly, I'm guessing Jackson wanted the book as a tribute (we won't forget) to the victims. But the "birds" theme falls flat for me, ultimately trivializing what must have been a horrific event. It also seems to me that "tapping at my door" could have worked without the birds at all.
One last complaint. Nathan Cody hanging from a railing with Chris connected by a rope. His arms, we are told, come out of their sockets, and his spine is stretched excruciatingly. He feels as if he is splitting in half. Yet when Chris is shot and killed, falling to his death, Cody just climbs up and is perfectly okay. My "willing suspension of disbelief" was snapped.
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