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ellelainey 's review for:
Silent Kill
by Jane Casey
TRIGGERS: anxiety, bullying, anorexia, murder, cancer, rehab facility, racism, anti-Muslim, gangs, mental health, eating disorders, post-natal depression
WARNING: mentions of Holocaust deniers committing cruel pranks against a teenager, neo-Nazis, anti-Semetism, Black Lives Matter
~
I have no idea why the author chose to write a 100+ page “short” story in the POV of the most hated/disliked recurring character of the series – Georgia. That's like writing a Harry Potter novel from the POV of Dolores Umbridge.
Unfortunately, though I've hated Georgia until now, it actually gets worse. She's vain, insecure, and – yes, the author tries to mitigate all that by suggesting it's because of her home life and family situation – but that doesn't make her any more likeable. Plenty of people have shitty parents, a horrible home life, or have lost a family member, without becoming a vindictive bitch who is only out for what she can get.
In one story, Georgia blatantly blackmails Derwent (over something that isn't even happening, isn't logical, and doesn't make sense at all, in the wider sense of the series), racial profiles a suspect, “falls” for a Dr of a witness, spends half her work day doing the bare minimum and the other half imagining what Derwent would be like in bed. Oh, and defends a murderer. Breaks the 4th wall, for no apparent reason (at the start of Chapter 7). And, when she comes home to her flat, and hears that her flatmate's boyfriend is home, she VERY deliberately undoes buttons on her blouse and blatantly flirts with him, pressing up against him in a disgusting attempt to make the girl angry. Then, says “She only had herself to blame” when the boyfriend eyes her up, as if, somehow, it's this girl's fault that Georgia acts like a raging slut. It's no wonder the flatmate hates her.
I think the best way to describe how I felt about this being in Georgia's POV would be to show you these little snippets:
“As for Maeve, she was wandering around the classroom looking at the posters on the walls, lost in thought. I took advantage of her being distracted to stand next to Derwent, lining up on his team. It looked as if he and I were there together, and Maeve was just tagging along. I liked giving that impression.”
“I would never admit it to Belcott, or anyone else, but I resented the fact that Derwent had a glint in his blue eyes that he never wasted on me. I might as well have been invisible to him, or even a man. He just wasn’t interested. At all.”
“I didn’t have a lot of friends, especially women. I always got on better with men – until we slept together and they ghosted me. If that didn’t happen, their girlfriends got worried about me being too much competition and made them back off.”
“I wanted to meet Lewis, and I wanted him to fall for me, because it would annoy the shit out of Amanda. That wasn’t the only reason – I wasn’t a complete monster. I wanted to be with someone who would tell me I was beautiful and appreciate me.”
I actually have hated Belcott since Book 1, for the disgusting way he talks about Maeve, and how everything under the sun has some sexual innuendo, but here, he won me over for a split second, by finally putting Georgia in her place. Though, sadly, I doubt it will show in the next novel.
“‘Mirror, mirror, on the wall.’
I turned the camera off and glared at Belcott. ‘Appearances matter, Pete.’
‘Turning up matters. Being there on time. Doing the job when you get there. How you look – that doesn’t matter.’”
Then, Maeve had her turn:
“Maeve was sorting through the contents of the girl’s bag. She paused to study an asthma inhaler, one of three that had been shoved in a side pocket of the bag.
‘So are we sure it’s murder? It couldn’t have been natural causes? If she had asthma, that could have killed her.’
‘Not unless it was armed with a knife.’ She pinched the edge of the girl’s coat and drew it back so I could see that the side of her torso was saturated with blood. ‘She was stabbed.’
‘Oh.’
‘Do you think the response officers and paramedics would have called us in for an asthma attack?’
‘No, of course not.’”
~
So, why 3 stars? Because the STORY was good. The crime itself was clever, if slightly disgusting. There's a lot of triggers here, but the way the story panned out, the pacing and interviews, were well done. If it wasn't for the strong, and horrible female-competition aspect of this series, Maeve's stupid behaviour, and Georgia's disgusting behaviour, then this would be a brilliant series. I utterly love Derwent and Godley, I kind of like Una now (though I hated her at first, as planned), and I love Kev Cox and the other Detectives. If only the women – in a series written BY a woman – cared less about their appearance, their personal lives, and who is sleeping with whom, this would be a cracker of a crime series.
WARNING: mentions of Holocaust deniers committing cruel pranks against a teenager, neo-Nazis, anti-Semetism, Black Lives Matter
~
I have no idea why the author chose to write a 100+ page “short” story in the POV of the most hated/disliked recurring character of the series – Georgia. That's like writing a Harry Potter novel from the POV of Dolores Umbridge.
Unfortunately, though I've hated Georgia until now, it actually gets worse. She's vain, insecure, and – yes, the author tries to mitigate all that by suggesting it's because of her home life and family situation – but that doesn't make her any more likeable. Plenty of people have shitty parents, a horrible home life, or have lost a family member, without becoming a vindictive bitch who is only out for what she can get.
In one story, Georgia blatantly blackmails Derwent (over something that isn't even happening, isn't logical, and doesn't make sense at all, in the wider sense of the series), racial profiles a suspect, “falls” for a Dr of a witness, spends half her work day doing the bare minimum and the other half imagining what Derwent would be like in bed. Oh, and defends a murderer. Breaks the 4th wall, for no apparent reason (at the start of Chapter 7). And, when she comes home to her flat, and hears that her flatmate's boyfriend is home, she VERY deliberately undoes buttons on her blouse and blatantly flirts with him, pressing up against him in a disgusting attempt to make the girl angry. Then, says “She only had herself to blame” when the boyfriend eyes her up, as if, somehow, it's this girl's fault that Georgia acts like a raging slut. It's no wonder the flatmate hates her.
I think the best way to describe how I felt about this being in Georgia's POV would be to show you these little snippets:
“As for Maeve, she was wandering around the classroom looking at the posters on the walls, lost in thought. I took advantage of her being distracted to stand next to Derwent, lining up on his team. It looked as if he and I were there together, and Maeve was just tagging along. I liked giving that impression.”
“I would never admit it to Belcott, or anyone else, but I resented the fact that Derwent had a glint in his blue eyes that he never wasted on me. I might as well have been invisible to him, or even a man. He just wasn’t interested. At all.”
“I didn’t have a lot of friends, especially women. I always got on better with men – until we slept together and they ghosted me. If that didn’t happen, their girlfriends got worried about me being too much competition and made them back off.”
“I wanted to meet Lewis, and I wanted him to fall for me, because it would annoy the shit out of Amanda. That wasn’t the only reason – I wasn’t a complete monster. I wanted to be with someone who would tell me I was beautiful and appreciate me.”
I actually have hated Belcott since Book 1, for the disgusting way he talks about Maeve, and how everything under the sun has some sexual innuendo, but here, he won me over for a split second, by finally putting Georgia in her place. Though, sadly, I doubt it will show in the next novel.
“‘Mirror, mirror, on the wall.’
I turned the camera off and glared at Belcott. ‘Appearances matter, Pete.’
‘Turning up matters. Being there on time. Doing the job when you get there. How you look – that doesn’t matter.’”
Then, Maeve had her turn:
“Maeve was sorting through the contents of the girl’s bag. She paused to study an asthma inhaler, one of three that had been shoved in a side pocket of the bag.
‘So are we sure it’s murder? It couldn’t have been natural causes? If she had asthma, that could have killed her.’
‘Not unless it was armed with a knife.’ She pinched the edge of the girl’s coat and drew it back so I could see that the side of her torso was saturated with blood. ‘She was stabbed.’
‘Oh.’
‘Do you think the response officers and paramedics would have called us in for an asthma attack?’
‘No, of course not.’”
~
So, why 3 stars? Because the STORY was good. The crime itself was clever, if slightly disgusting. There's a lot of triggers here, but the way the story panned out, the pacing and interviews, were well done. If it wasn't for the strong, and horrible female-competition aspect of this series, Maeve's stupid behaviour, and Georgia's disgusting behaviour, then this would be a brilliant series. I utterly love Derwent and Godley, I kind of like Una now (though I hated her at first, as planned), and I love Kev Cox and the other Detectives. If only the women – in a series written BY a woman – cared less about their appearance, their personal lives, and who is sleeping with whom, this would be a cracker of a crime series.