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Kristin Ashe Mystery Series #2
Existing Solutions
When lesbian activist Destiny Greaves asks P.I. Kristin Ashe to find her biological father - the man who raped her mother - both their lives are turned upside down.
Thanks to help from brash ex-nun Fran Green, Kris has no trouble finding the man. But understanding what happened more than thirty years ago, the night Destiny was conceived - is much more difficult.
For starters, Destiny's father, Richard Freeman, has recently been recognized for his volunteer efforts with the Monarch Center, a local rape crisis center. In a race against Freeman's increasing psychological hold over Destiny, Kris must find out exactly what's going on at the Monarch Center, a task complicated by her struggles with her own father and by the realization that she is falling in love with Destiny.
181 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1993
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November 30, 2012
Probably two and a half would be more accurate, but Goodreads won't let me do that, so...
Anyway. I picked up this book in a clearance sale, one bag of books for a dollar. Apparently it's the second in a series, but I clearly didn't read the first one and I followed along just fine, so no worries on that account! The book is short - I read it in a couple of hours - and there are three or so subplots, all of which roll along at a rapid pace. Narratively, it's structured well.
All in all if I had to describe the book I'd describe it as "ridiculous", though. Around twenty pages in, I felt that I wasn't reading a novel at all, but a polemic. I know there are others out there who love reading books that are just naked expressions of a particular politics, but I just don't. To me it feels artificial and soulless. Especially since the topic of this polemic was, "rape is bad and frequently traumatic". o rly? That sounds like something I could already have told you.
So... the politics of this book are a bit bleh. The narrator is a petit-bourgeois woman who's been running her own businesses for over a decade. While it's not explicitly said, it's implied that every failure to report rape to the police is a tragedy - certainly there's no recognition anywhere of the detrimental effect that police have on society. Also, the narrator seems to think she's left-wing because she's a lesbian who doesn't date Republicans, which... no...
There are very few male characters; the only one I can remember who's not a violent rapist is a twelve-year-old boy, so uh, yep. The female characters are all very, very similar to each other, too. Almost all of them are just generic "feisty women" and a lot of them traumatised by sexual violence. I will say that this is far from the worst sin an author could commit, and a cast of generic feisty women is better than a lot of other possibilities, but it did mean that I never got particularly invested in the outcome of the book. The character of Fran was pretty cool though, I liked her. An elderly-ish woman unafraid to be sexual and a hella competent detective - what's not to like!
So basically... this work struck me as very polemical and as a polemic whose politics are crap, I'm going to end up a bit unimpressed with that element of it. For me the best subplot was the romance between Kris and Destiny. I was kind of disappointed with how the main plot worked out (I don't want to spoil it but...).
It was an alright read, partly because it was so short, but yeah, not much more than that, I would say.
Anyway. I picked up this book in a clearance sale, one bag of books for a dollar. Apparently it's the second in a series, but I clearly didn't read the first one and I followed along just fine, so no worries on that account! The book is short - I read it in a couple of hours - and there are three or so subplots, all of which roll along at a rapid pace. Narratively, it's structured well.
All in all if I had to describe the book I'd describe it as "ridiculous", though. Around twenty pages in, I felt that I wasn't reading a novel at all, but a polemic. I know there are others out there who love reading books that are just naked expressions of a particular politics, but I just don't. To me it feels artificial and soulless. Especially since the topic of this polemic was, "rape is bad and frequently traumatic". o rly? That sounds like something I could already have told you.
So... the politics of this book are a bit bleh. The narrator is a petit-bourgeois woman who's been running her own businesses for over a decade. While it's not explicitly said, it's implied that every failure to report rape to the police is a tragedy - certainly there's no recognition anywhere of the detrimental effect that police have on society. Also, the narrator seems to think she's left-wing because she's a lesbian who doesn't date Republicans, which... no...
There are very few male characters; the only one I can remember who's not a violent rapist is a twelve-year-old boy, so uh, yep. The female characters are all very, very similar to each other, too. Almost all of them are just generic "feisty women" and a lot of them traumatised by sexual violence. I will say that this is far from the worst sin an author could commit, and a cast of generic feisty women is better than a lot of other possibilities, but it did mean that I never got particularly invested in the outcome of the book. The character of Fran was pretty cool though, I liked her. An elderly-ish woman unafraid to be sexual and a hella competent detective - what's not to like!
So basically... this work struck me as very polemical and as a polemic whose politics are crap, I'm going to end up a bit unimpressed with that element of it. For me the best subplot was the romance between Kris and Destiny. I was kind of disappointed with how the main plot worked out (I don't want to spoil it but...).
It was an alright read, partly because it was so short, but yeah, not much more than that, I would say.
Displaying 1 of 1 review