And They Let Him Write More of this Dreck?
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Title: Genre: The kid next door and I were talking books not long ago when I confessed to reading a lot of mysteries - so the next time he came over to borrow a cup of sugar for his mom, he brought me a couple of books from his bookshelf. Now, I Iike this young man. His parents have raised their Eagle Scout right - he's brave, clean, reverent, and all the rest (including polite). I suppose that living next door to a couple of displaced Yankee liberals is eternally entertaining to this strict Southern Baptist Son of the Confederacy, but he keeps his amusement to himself (as do we, I admit). It came as no surprise to me, though, when both books bore price stickers from the local Christian bookstore. I'd never heard of the mystery series he brought me - Gil Beckman? But then the Ms claims that I'll read anything if I'm desperate enough, and sure enough a few days later, I picked up the copy of Suspended Animation he'd brought. The jacket blurb notes that author W. E. (a. k. a. Wally) Davis is "working as a crimes investigator* for a police department in Southern California." My only response to that is, "Don't quit your day job, Wally... This Park'll Scare You to Death Gil Beckman used to be a cop, at least until he "pulled the pin" to open a mail-order tsatshkes business, an entrepreneurial endeavor that pretty much folded within a year. Having apparently burned his bridges behind him at the local cop shop, Gil's taken a job as a security "officer" at the local amusement park, where he spends nights opening doors for maintenance crews and hiding from a supervisor twenty years his junior. That's exactly what he's doing in the King Solomon's Mine ride one night when he stumbles upon the lifeless body of a young park employee. As luck would have it, Gil's erstwhile partner on the local force draws the homicide. As a lowly rent-a-cop, though, Gil's warned to keep his nose out of the investigation - an admonishment he naturally ignores. Even working sans badge, Gil's superior cop skills lead him straight to a motive, as well as the deceased teen's missing girlfriend. And then it's time to confront the killer(s), in a bizarre foot chase through the abandoned back alleys of the closed amusement park. Will Gil escape the murderous thug who beat in a hapless teenager's head? Will he overcome department politics to get his old job back in the PD? Will he remember what kind of car he drives? Read it... and weep. Why You Ought to Skip It For mystery fiction in general, Suspended Animation falls short on several fronts. Structurally, Davis's writing suffers from frequent lapses in continuity - the detective talks about prints on the murder weapon two chapters before it's found, for instance; and Beckman's vehicle morphs from a full-size van that gets "eleven miles to the gallon" to a "wimpy six-banger" and then back. The editing is substandard, with frequent spelling and grammatical errors. For a mystery, the detecting is weak - for example, Gil has difficulty sussing out which of four girls uses the nickname Trish, unable to choose from among Ashley, Mary, Lynn, and Beatrice. Gimme a break, Wally! Other simple clues are just as difficult, and the hero has no idea who the actual killer is until faced with the immediate need to flee for his life. The obligatory final showdown is poorly plotted, and, when revealed, the killer's motivation for murder is weak and murky. The main character is regrettably unlikable. Though intended as "wise-cracking" (per the jacket blurb), Gil instead comes across as petulant and abrasive. Those who think him arrogant, he claims on numerous occasions, simply misinterpret his innate confidence. He carries out the requisite flirtations with co-workers and waitresses (totally chaste, of course, as befits a book sold at Zondervan's), and builds an avuncular relationship with the dead boy's girlfriend. Other than Beckman, characters are paper-thin caricatures, with only the girlfriend getting much page time. A Good Role Model? As I understand it, books of this subgenre - Christian mysteries - are intended to provide entertainment while reinforcing a predefined set of family values, including frequent references to Gil's and other characters' Christian faith. There are, as one might expect, frequent attempts to reinforce social attitudesre abortion, gun control, environmentalism, and the like. In theory, Gil Beckman is intended to serve as a role model for young Christians who might read this book. Should you wish to insulate yourself or your family from the type of fiction that's written by the likes of Grafton and Grisham, that's certainly your right. You do need to know that, at least in this case, you're getting a product that's notably substandard. More to the purpose of that insulation, however, I would hesitate to term the protagonist here a proper role model. He exhibits an assortment of attitudes that I (for one) would prefer become less common rather than more so. Beckman is relentlessly negative, particularly about anything that doesn't fit precisely into his worldview - not just religion, but fitness, choice of vehicles, whatever. He refuses to take responsibility for bad choices - it's the other guy's fault. Anything that doesn't go his way is immediately pelted with sour grapes. He's arrogant, but calls it "self-confidence." He is xenophobic, and perhaps a little bit racist. He makes fun of people behind their backs and sometimes to their face - calling his Hispanic supervisor Jaime Brito** "Burrito," for instance. In short, Suspended Animation is not only a poor job of mystery writing, but it also (in my estimation) subverts the object lesson that's supposed to be included. Beckman's a lousy detective, and Davis needs to get an attitude transplant. Last, but not least, where in the heck did the title come from, anyway? * I presume the title "crimes investigator" was chosen to give additional legitimacy to someone who isn't actually a police officer. ** Odd. I used to work for a man named Brito, but he was Italian, not Hispanic. Go Figure. all content copyright © 2014 by scmrak
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