Okay, last one of these for a while. I promise. At least a
few days. And I not only finished this one, but I did it last
month, which means the book is a little more fresh in my
memory.
John Cuddy is in a new apartment, thanks to a bomb blast in
THE STAKED GOAT. On his doorstep arrives Lt. Murphy, seeking
a favor. Murphy looked the other way when Cuddy set up a
murderer for a dose of his own medicine. Now Murphy wants
Cuddy to look into the shooting death of a coed in a small
private college north of Boston. The accused is a black
student, her boyfriend. The boy had a gun and confessed to
the killing. Everybody, including the boy, believes he did
it. The trouble is there are no winesses and the confession
came from a questionable hypnotherapy group. Cuddy goes to
investigate. What he finds are a local cop with a bad temper
and a yen for the deceased girl, a wealthy bully (whom I'm
convinced would have been played well by Ted McGinley in his
annoying prime), and a psychiatrist who apparently gets a
little upset when his methods are questioned. It's the shrink
who convinces Cuddy that boy is all wrong for the murder, and
he even manages to convince !
one of the local cops, along with the girl's
father.
I have to give props to Healy on this one for taking an
impossible premise - Man confesses to murder with weapon in
hand, case closed, except he didn't do it - and making it
work. The hypnotherapy angle is pretty obvious from the
get-go, so Healy focuses more on the motivations. Why does
someone want to be that guy from the Tantalus episode of STAR
TREK (or the planetarium ep of SOUTH PARK. Either one works.)
What lengths will he go to to cover it up (because you don't
have a ceiling-mounted brain zapper in 1987)? Again, it could
have been a pretty ridiculous story, except that Dr. Marek is
shown not as a mad scientist, but a quack with tenure and
access to some really good drugs.
The other piece that makes this book work is William Daniels.
Daniels is the young black man accused of the murder, and is
pretty much screwed no matter what happens. Daniels comes
from a bad neighborhood and, being the smartest guy in the
room, is an outcast. At first, he goes to Boston College, but
transfers to the private school in the 'burbs. At home, he's
alienated for not being "black enough." At school, he's
neither white nor wealthy (and his smarts intimidate some of
the moneyed students whose parents bought their way in.) The
whole situation and the murder rap leave Daniels hating the
world and not wanting Cuddy's help. But Cuddy is doing this
for Murphy, who's doing this for Daniels' mother.
Healy's device of conversations with Cuddy's dead wife are
used to great effect here. A few more voices in Cuddy's head,
and he could easily show up in a Del Farmer novel. But here,
it's Cuddy's way of sorting life out, as well as holding on
to someone he's lost. The conversations are not as poignant
here. You have a ghost in Cuddy's head trying to force him to
be objective. A lesser writer would have made this seem
gimmicky.
SO LIKE SLEEP isn't as violent as THE STAKED GOAT, but it's
far more complex. There's a reason the Cuddy series lasted as
long as it has.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
--------------------~--> Has someone you know been
affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place
to support health awareness efforts!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/rkgkPB/UOnJAA/Zx0JAA/kqIolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 04 Jun 2005 EDT