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Inspector Raft Mystery #2
Rag & Bone
Scotland Yard Inspector Philemon Raft arrives on the scene of a deadly fire in Whitechapel, only to find a much more sinister force at work, destroying lives with swift abandon - and a lunatic may help Raft capture the master criminal known only as "The Master."
257 pages, ebook
First published March 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 9, 2011
It's been several days since I've read this book and, now that my impressions have somewhat settled, I can finally list the things that I enjoyed about Rag & Bones and some of the things that didn't work for me and were the source of great frustration.
Let me say this first, because I'm afraid my criticism will overshadow the qualities of this novel. J.S. Cook is a great writer. Through a few lines of physical description, she can capture the entire character, so much so, that you can actually see them and hear them and just know who they are. The descriptions of London's underside, primarily the lives of the poor, were very, very effective and I was simultaneously nauseated and delighted with author's skill. I really have no complains about the writing itself. It's the story elements and, to an extent, the structure of the novel that didn't quite work for me.
The first thing that frustrated me practically through the entire novel was that Raft seemed to have landed in all-homo world. Almost all the characters related to his investigation and, therefore, the main storyline were gay or, at least, had some feelings towards other men. These included three out of four suspects, one of Raft's colleagues involved in the investigation and the asylum doctor (admittedly, this one was just a hint and could have been explained differently). Some of them are very forward about it too. Add to this Raft himself, Freddie and several characters we've met in the previous book and you have one happy gay London - in early 1890s (Raft says several times that the Ripper murders occurred two years earlier and that was in 1888). Unlikely, yes? The change in Raft's character added to this feeling. The restrained and frightened Raft from the first novel became so relaxed with his sexuality that he even . I didn't buy this, especially because it didn't lead to the satisfactory results. It is expected that things are different between Raft and Freddie, particularly behind the closed doors. They are together a little less than a year, they live together, and some of their banter was really funny and showed the progression of their relationship. The other things, however, were unbelievable and in contrast with Raft from the first novel.
The investigation itself was very chaotic too. In fact, the entire first part of the novel felt disjointed. It is not uncommon for the author to present several apparently unconnected story lines and bring them together later. Here, however, the narration and Raft with it jumped from one place and suspect to the other (sometimes in only a few lines, sometimes in several scenes) in a manner that made my head spin as well as question Raft as a police officer. In fact, it felt like he didn't start trying to solve the case until half through the novel.
Some episodes in the novel were there just too produce certain effect and therefore felt artificial and unnecessary, although the author has written them in a way that made me think they were much more significant. For example, . I think that, since Freddie is a policeman and gay man in Victorian London, the author could have found other means to lead him to the desired point.
There is an entire story line that is an homage to Brem Stoker. This made me smile and I liked it to a point. I was very curious to see where it would lead and I expected some twist to it that will make it more than an homage to the cult novel. There wasn't any.
And, finally, we have the paranormal element of the novel and Raft's past. It is not the paranormal element presented to us in the first novel, although we get the glimpse of it and then it practically disappears. In fact, we don't get to really learn what the mysterious powers of a mysterious character really are. They include astral projection or something and that's it. What of Raft's past? Well, you won't get that either, because he doesn't remember. That is a very weak explanation since this is the novel with multiple POVs and it was possible to give us at least some insight in Raft's past. It is usual, almost expected for the mystery writers to hold some of their cards close to the chest. J.S. Cook holds all the cards close to her chest. Instead of giving us some hints that would fuel our curiosity and speculations, not to mention the desire to read the next novel, we get practically nothing. Frustrating. The ending? Frustrating. Not because of what happened, but because it wasn't clear why it was necessary.
It seemed to me that there were too many elements in this novel. Some of them could have been used more efficiently and some of them completely dropped because they didn't lead to anything significant. The narration would have been smoother, the story clearer and, maybe, some of the character changes better explained. I'm giving the book this rating because I truly appreciated the writing and because the book is a part of the series, so some revelations and, hopefully, explanations will follow in the future books. I admit it, the echo of the first novel and my fondness for the protagonists had something to do with the rating as well. I'm hoping things will get better in the next book because there is so much potential in these characters.
Let me say this first, because I'm afraid my criticism will overshadow the qualities of this novel. J.S. Cook is a great writer. Through a few lines of physical description, she can capture the entire character, so much so, that you can actually see them and hear them and just know who they are. The descriptions of London's underside, primarily the lives of the poor, were very, very effective and I was simultaneously nauseated and delighted with author's skill. I really have no complains about the writing itself. It's the story elements and, to an extent, the structure of the novel that didn't quite work for me.
The first thing that frustrated me practically through the entire novel was that Raft seemed to have landed in all-homo world. Almost all the characters related to his investigation and, therefore, the main storyline were gay or, at least, had some feelings towards other men. These included three out of four suspects, one of Raft's colleagues involved in the investigation and the asylum doctor (admittedly, this one was just a hint and could have been explained differently). Some of them are very forward about it too. Add to this Raft himself, Freddie and several characters we've met in the previous book and you have one happy gay London - in early 1890s (Raft says several times that the Ripper murders occurred two years earlier and that was in 1888). Unlikely, yes? The change in Raft's character added to this feeling. The restrained and frightened Raft from the first novel became so relaxed with his sexuality that he even . I didn't buy this, especially because it didn't lead to the satisfactory results. It is expected that things are different between Raft and Freddie, particularly behind the closed doors. They are together a little less than a year, they live together, and some of their banter was really funny and showed the progression of their relationship. The other things, however, were unbelievable and in contrast with Raft from the first novel.
The investigation itself was very chaotic too. In fact, the entire first part of the novel felt disjointed. It is not uncommon for the author to present several apparently unconnected story lines and bring them together later. Here, however, the narration and Raft with it jumped from one place and suspect to the other (sometimes in only a few lines, sometimes in several scenes) in a manner that made my head spin as well as question Raft as a police officer. In fact, it felt like he didn't start trying to solve the case until half through the novel.
Some episodes in the novel were there just too produce certain effect and therefore felt artificial and unnecessary, although the author has written them in a way that made me think they were much more significant. For example, . I think that, since Freddie is a policeman and gay man in Victorian London, the author could have found other means to lead him to the desired point.
There is an entire story line that is an homage to Brem Stoker. This made me smile and I liked it to a point. I was very curious to see where it would lead and I expected some twist to it that will make it more than an homage to the cult novel. There wasn't any.
And, finally, we have the paranormal element of the novel and Raft's past. It is not the paranormal element presented to us in the first novel, although we get the glimpse of it and then it practically disappears. In fact, we don't get to really learn what the mysterious powers of a mysterious character really are. They include astral projection or something and that's it. What of Raft's past? Well, you won't get that either, because he doesn't remember. That is a very weak explanation since this is the novel with multiple POVs and it was possible to give us at least some insight in Raft's past. It is usual, almost expected for the mystery writers to hold some of their cards close to the chest. J.S. Cook holds all the cards close to her chest. Instead of giving us some hints that would fuel our curiosity and speculations, not to mention the desire to read the next novel, we get practically nothing. Frustrating. The ending? Frustrating. Not because of what happened, but because it wasn't clear why it was necessary.
It seemed to me that there were too many elements in this novel. Some of them could have been used more efficiently and some of them completely dropped because they didn't lead to anything significant. The narration would have been smoother, the story clearer and, maybe, some of the character changes better explained. I'm giving the book this rating because I truly appreciated the writing and because the book is a part of the series, so some revelations and, hopefully, explanations will follow in the future books. I admit it, the echo of the first novel and my fondness for the protagonists had something to do with the rating as well. I'm hoping things will get better in the next book because there is so much potential in these characters.
February 16, 2012
This is the follow up to "Willing Flesh" which we reviewed on Speak Its Name a while back. It's taken me a disgustingly long time to get around to reading and reviewing the sequel and for that I apologise.
What I like about these two books (and I hope that there will be many more of them) is that they started out as rewrites of her two Inspector Devlin novels but instead of being faithful copies, they have been re-written to make them only vaguely reminiscent of their ancestry. If you've read book two of Devlin I think I can safely say that you will be happy about the denouement of Rag and Bone...
What I admire about J.S. Cook's work is the sense of the grotesque--in a very good way. She takes a blending of Dickens, a touch of King, a taste of Peake and blends it all in in her own inimitable style. I absolutely adore her character description. It's not overdone in a Noir style, but she manages to give us an absolute certain description with a few deft sentences.
Raft was sitting is Sir Newton Babcock's office, gazing at the floor and constructing patterns out of the carpet's tortuous motif while the police commissioner wallowed up and down, looking very like a rhinoceros forcing its way through thick river mud.
What stops the book getting a five star from me is that fact that I wish JS Cook would trust her own talent and would create truly original characters as I know she is capable of doing. There's too much Renfield in Rennie the lunatic, too much Holmes and Hare in Hoare, too much Dracula in "The Master" and so on and so on. Raft--who I believe JSC was modelling on David Tennant--develops a 3rd heartbeat and while I know all of these details could simply be labelled as an admiring nod to characters that JSC admires, for me it was irritating and kept dragging it back towards fanfic, and the book deserves much better than that. Perhaps thought it's just I have too much inside knowledge and other readers wouldn't even notice.
The editing leaves something to be desired, too - misused homonyms were picked up here and there manner born/manor born, reign/rein and the like and it needed a harsh eye looking over the plot, as things happened which hadn't had any set-up, and some elements seemed rush, pasted on and in the end weren't really explained to my satisfaction. However it's hoped there will be more of the series, so explanations may come later.
However, some authors with less talent would have a whole point taken off for these problems, J.S. Cook only loses half a point because of her consummate skill in her writing as a whole.
What shows clearly is Cook's research. I know that she does much of her forensic research at home, making fake skulls, filling them with fake blood and then shattering them to study blood spatter--and other such home pursuits! I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's almost impossible to imagine that she's not only not as English as Miss Marple, but lives in a remote location on another continent. The way she covers police procedure and the forensic knowledge of the time rings very true. If I had one quibble it's about her dialogue for some of the characters. At the beginning of the book two children are talking, children from the Whitechapel area, completely poor and uneducated. Their speech patterns are off, sadly--one of the children actually says "There aren't any more" rather than "There ain't none." The dialogue of the children is very wobbly, careering from east end dialect and back again. A good English beta-ing would have been sensible, but then perhaps only English people would spot it.
The ending is not your typical romance ending, but then these books aren't romances - they are crime drama, and while the horror that happens in the earlier incarnation of this book doesn't happen, JS Cook doesn't let her protagonists off lightly and the ending left me heartbroken in a good way and on tenterhooks for book three of the series.
You can read this as a stand-alone, despite it being part of a series, it works fine as it is, but I urge you to try out Willing Flesh first--if you are a fan of Victorian crime drama you can't help but be impressed by Rag and Bone.
September 2, 2016
The Inspector Raft series is more than a series of mystery novels; it's a deft experiment in postmodernism, expertly executed, and so slyly tongue-in-cheek that one could easily read them as m/m detective fiction without noticing the cultural crossovers. J. S. Cook has used her characters to make a series of knowing nods towards our all-persuasive pop culture icons, all the while grounding them in a gritty, extensively-researched historical setting. The result is intriguing: characters carry a sense of familiarity, but take on an entirely new life in this new setting. Enjoyable simply for the stories, but if you don't appreciate the layers of pastiche as well I think you'd be missing some of the joys of intertextuality this series provides.
As well, in another wry twist on postmodern sensibilities, Cook has actually used her own former detective series (the Inspector Devlin books) in the creation of these new books, deconstructing and reconstructing them in a way that foregrounds the series as fiction by drawing attention to the artificiality of constructing texts--once you recognize the characters as re-embodiments, you temporarily sacrifice the "immersive" aspect of the books for a moment of sheer glee at figuring out what she's done.
Again: I'm sure these could be enjoyed simply as m/m mysteries. But they can be better appreciated if you approach them with a sense of the author at play, and join in the game.
As well, in another wry twist on postmodern sensibilities, Cook has actually used her own former detective series (the Inspector Devlin books) in the creation of these new books, deconstructing and reconstructing them in a way that foregrounds the series as fiction by drawing attention to the artificiality of constructing texts--once you recognize the characters as re-embodiments, you temporarily sacrifice the "immersive" aspect of the books for a moment of sheer glee at figuring out what she's done.
Again: I'm sure these could be enjoyed simply as m/m mysteries. But they can be better appreciated if you approach them with a sense of the author at play, and join in the game.
August 2, 2021
This is the second of J S Cook's 'Inspector Raft' novels, and in it we encounter several old friends whose characters and background are further developed and explained. While Inspector Philemon Raft and Constable Freddie Crook continue their secret relationship (secret because the Labourchere Amendment hangs heavy over the homosexual community in these years immediately preceding the trial of Oscar Wilde), a series of gruesome murders involving extreme mutilation appear to be copycat versions of those carried out by Jack the Ripper a few years ago. However, Jack the Ripper has been caught and executed - or has he?
As if that isn't enough to cope with, Raft's esoteric and psychic ability appears to be developing further, and a mysterious mark on his wrist begins to make itself felt, especially following encounters with the mysterious master of the local workhouse, John Gallant, who claims a prior and intimate acquaintance between them that Raft can't quite remember. Just what is Gallant's relationship with young amnesiac Thomas Charles Rennie, sole survivor of a mysterious shipwreck, who refers to him as 'My Master'? Then there's eccentric architect Geraint Task, who appears to have mesmeric powers and manages to entice both Phil and Freddie into his secret underground layer for a session of hashish, hallucination and debauchery.
At times it does all become overly complicated and one can get lost in the sub-plots, but as with 'Willing Flesh', the atmosphere and the details of Victorian London are so vivid and the characters so well drawn, with many nods to contemporary authors such at Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker, that it becomes unputdownable as the story gathers pace. One is left hoping that all will be explained in the final instalment of the trilogy, and ready for more!
As if that isn't enough to cope with, Raft's esoteric and psychic ability appears to be developing further, and a mysterious mark on his wrist begins to make itself felt, especially following encounters with the mysterious master of the local workhouse, John Gallant, who claims a prior and intimate acquaintance between them that Raft can't quite remember. Just what is Gallant's relationship with young amnesiac Thomas Charles Rennie, sole survivor of a mysterious shipwreck, who refers to him as 'My Master'? Then there's eccentric architect Geraint Task, who appears to have mesmeric powers and manages to entice both Phil and Freddie into his secret underground layer for a session of hashish, hallucination and debauchery.
At times it does all become overly complicated and one can get lost in the sub-plots, but as with 'Willing Flesh', the atmosphere and the details of Victorian London are so vivid and the characters so well drawn, with many nods to contemporary authors such at Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker, that it becomes unputdownable as the story gathers pace. One is left hoping that all will be explained in the final instalment of the trilogy, and ready for more!
July 3, 2012
Deliciously eerie and atmospheric, this gothic police procedural is set in 1890 London, with Inspector Philomen Raft and Constable Freddie Crook, lovers and co-workers for Scotland Yard. They are back for this second novel. The shadows of Jack the Ripper and Bram Stoker's Dracula weave through the novel, lending further atmosphere, as the author takes us to a workhouse, Bedlam, possible arson fires, and any number of chilling events and places. Sharply drawn characters populate the novel. Echoes of all the dark tales of 19th century London resound through this story. The reader wonders what is going on and is then led to yet another puzzlement. Recognizing which old tales are being recast in this one provides another entertainment. Madmen, hints of the supernatural, and villains aplenty. It's not really so much about solving a mystery as reveling in the setting and characters.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews