Harry BinghamRecensioni
Autore di Parla con i morti
Recensioni
This one was a bit of a stretch, even for this series. I skipped over the Fi survives torture bit, but then there was the Fi singlehandedly saves the day by posing as a ship's cook and scuppers a trawler bit. I am finding the overarching case increasingly hard to remember as elements of each book are incorporated.
Still, reliable entertainment.
I don't really see why Fiona (and her colleagues and the CPS) were so convinced that Mortimer was an innocent victim. Where was the evidence? The documents at the cottage could go either way surely...
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‘Suspicious circumstances, sir? I mean, what? An open window, something missing, that kind of thing?’
‘Well, I don’t know about the windows. That part hasn’t been reported to me. But the uniformed officer currently attending the scene did say that this woman appears to have been beheaded. I daresay there’ll need to be some further forensic work needed before we can be certain, but it appears that the weapon of choice was an antique broadsword. It’s obviously early days, but I’m going to stick my neck out and say that no, Gaynor Charteris probably did not slip on any stairs.'
WHAT'S THE DEEPEST GRAVE ABOUT?
It's been 453 days since Fiona's investigated anything to do with a murder, and she's getting impatient for something interesting to do. She's aware that's a lousy way for a police detective to think, and really can't find it in herself to care. The crime scene she's sent to (along with a new DI who is going to make life difficult for her—and she'll repay in kind) will likely make up for that. I'll quickly note that this opening scene just might be the most entertaining opening in the series—and definitely one of the more entertaining I've read this year.
You don't get much more interesting in the 21st century than finding a woman decapitated with three spearpoints thrust into her heart. It makes a bit more sense when they learn their victim is an archeologist and professor, specializing in ancient Wales—but only a little bit.
Her new DI wants to focus on "highly disturbed" locals, but Fiona knows that's wasted time (she wastes it on command, but still). She finds some other crimes in nearby jurisdictions that involve the thefts of largely (monetarily) worthless historical artifacts and documents from about the same era as the dig that their victim was working. Fi doesn't understand the link or ultimate target of the criminals, but she's convinced there's a link. Interrupting an armed individual in the midst of a similar crime only hardens her view.
Her DI isn't yet convinced but gives her enough rope to hang herself.
And, well, what ensues is both unlike much of what you've read before yet exactly what you should expect from a Fiona Griffiths case.
ARTHUR
One thing that frequently bothers me when I read Crime Fiction is when a significant scientific breakthrough happens—like when Gideon Oliver is part of the discovery of something that alters the foundations of anthropology when Joe Pickett discovers a species hasn't gone extinct after all, or when Robert Langdon does whatever it is that he does to get to the "real history" of something. When Fiona started messing around with Welsh burial sites and people digging around the legend of Arthur, well, that made me nervous.
However, what Bingham does with this setup is ingenious—we get all the research and history surrounding the legend that the above authors (and others) give. But the book isn't about Arthur, it's about looking into him, the artifacts surrounding him—and most importantly, those who are doing the research*.
* This group includes a vicar who is a simply delightful character. A better or more thorough blogger (or just one with better time management skills) would spend some time describing him. I'm going to pretend that I don't so that you get all the joy of disCovery yourself. I'll just say that he starts off being a kick and gets better.
A DIFFERENT ENCOUNTER WITH DEATH
Was there a moment? I always wonder that. Is there ever an exact moment of death? One microsecond you’re there, the next you’re definitely not? People, even doctors, always talk as though that partition exists, but personally I doubt it. I suspect that death creeps over us more gradually than that: an ever-dimming sunset, not a sudden rush into night.
Readers of this series know that Fi has...an interesting perspective on death. This leads to a strange attachment that she develops to the murder victims in her cases. While investigating this particular murder, she befriends a woman with a degenerative and likely terminal illness.
Fiona reacts to this in a way that probably deserves a few paragraphs of analysis from better writers. It felt genuine and troubling—maybe frightening. Which led to some rewarding reflection on Fi's part. In turn, this resulted in some choices on her part that show that Fi's desire to be part of Planet Normal is within reach. It's some of the best character development we've seen from her for a while.
THE AUTHOR'S NOTE
There's a great, great note after the novel about things like choosing to center so much of this on Arthur as well as describing the kind of mystery novel that Bingham is writing, and what kind of character Fi is, compared to others in the genre over the last century or so.
For those looking to really dig into the character of Fiona Griffiths, this is something you need to read (even if it's the kind of thing you tend to skip).
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THE DEEPEST GRAVE?
In addition to the main story, we get some resolution (some that is encouraging, some that isn't) about some old cases and people throughout this book. Some of Fi's relationships are changing and she's changing with them.
This is both a very clever crime and the way that Fiona counters it is equally clever. There's nothing about this part of the novel that I didn't like (although there was one red herring that I'd have preferred some more resolution). When Bingham's on his game, he's really on it—and this book shows it.
It's been a few years since this came out, which makes me worry that we're not going to see another entry in the series—despite what the material at the end of the book suggests. If so, this is a fitting way to see the series end and it will go out on a high note. If Bingham returns to these, I'll be more than ready—I'm not prepared to say goodbye to Fi just yet if I don't have to.
When I start a new series about a British police detective, I hope to find that it has something about it that will keep my interest and set it apart from all the other series out there competing for my attention. 'Talking To The Dead'delighted me by delivering something well-written, engaging and original.
From the start, I was impressed with Harry Bingham's prose. Without ever dropping into the kind of purple prose passaged that are the fiction writer's equivalent of the self-indulgent always-too-long guitar solos that used to plague Rock bands once upon a time, he writes in a way that does more than carry the story forward. The main character, Detective Constable Fiona Griffiths is odd. Everyone knows that, including Fiona herself. Harry Bingham conveys this oddness in the way in which he describes the world as seen through Fiona's eyes. In crime fiction in particular, the quality of the writing makes the difference between mundane and marvellous. This internal monologue from Fiona, describing her reaction to hospitals, is an example of the marvellous.
'I’m not good with hospitals, the endless buildings, trees dotted around like apologies and inside, it’s job functions you can’t understand and that air of incomprehensible busyness. Curtained off beds and death settling like falling snow.'"
It shows me that Fiona is bright and educated and that she's a little off. It also makes me wonder about her own experience of hospitals. The imagery goes beyond utilitarian without being self-consciously lyrical. There's a lot of this kind of writing in the book.
What every police series needs is a detective who is something more than a voice-over rehearsing the plot, misdirecting the reader's attention, and shouting 'Eureka' at the appropriate moment. The detective needs to have a personality, to feel real, and not to be bland.
Fiona Griffiths, the newly-minted Detective Constable working the South Wales Police, is a fascinating character. Harry Bingham took me right inside her head. Being there didn't always help me to understand her but it did allow me to experience her. That was enough to whet my curiosity that I was more interested in her than the crimes she was trying to solve. What I enjoyed was that the problems that Fiona Griffiths has aren't related to the abuse of drink or drugs or emotional scars from failed relationships or guilt over past sins but to who she is and how she thinks. Fiona is very bright. She's also odd to the point of being at risk of lapsing into debilitating mental illness. We know from early in the book that she was ill for a couple of years as a teenager. We also know she 'got better' and went on to academic success at University. It takes most of the book to find out what the illness was and the limited extent to which it's true that she 'got better'.
Of course, good writing and a strong main character aren't enough. There have to be other people that I can believe in and a crime that is complex but credible. Harry Bingham surrounds Fiona with people who are almost as odd as she is. Her father, who has made a career on the edges of legality. An ex-policeman who is what Fiona might become. A martial arts trainer with an unorthodox past and opaque motivations. He also gives her a boss who is the perfect blend of chiding and supporting.
The crime turned out to be grittier than I expected. I liked watching Fiona pull the disparate pieces into a pattern that made sense. The pattern involves violence against sex workers. I liked that the descriptions of these women were neither judgemental nor sentimental.
Talking To The Dead' is the first book in a series that is currently six books strong. I have no idea where the series is going to go after the end of the first book but I'm looking forward to finding out.
I recommend the audiobook, narrated by Siriol Jenkins . Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.
Fiona has a unique ability that allows her to see connections that others miss. She throws herself into her work and is only being held back by an assignment as a temporary exhibits officer. This desk job causes her no end of bother, she wants to be out doing the detecting not stuck in a basement recording and filing the evidence. Luckily, her bosses give her an opportunity to continue on with her investigations.
This was an interesting and complex story. We are following several inter-linking plots and as the author develops Fiona we continue to learn about Fiona’s personal life, her adoption, her medical condition and her criminal father. It seems obvious that eventually all the evidence will point to her father, and that a major showdown will result. I have enjoyed all of these books and look forward to continuing on with this compelling and entertaining series.
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WHAT'S THE DEAD HOUSE ABOUT?
The big task force that Fiona's in, trying to get at the group she's been on the heels of since book 1, is about to be shut down—they're just not getting results. Predictably, Fiona isn't dealing well with it. She needs something else to do to remind her why she's with the police.
Circumstances too elaborate to get into lead her into being a detective on-scene near a small village to oversee a found body until the local police with jurisdiction can take over—but in the end, we have Fiona alone in a room with a corpse for a few hours. Naturally, she develops a strong emotional connection with the body and becomes determined to find out what happened to this woman.
There are no obvious signs of violence—and even some signs of care—to the woman, but she's dead and she's been left in a remote location without anyone notifying the authorities. And, it turns out, she's been missing for quite a while.
Fiona needles her way into the investigation, of course (because what else is she going to)—and the path that she and the DI she's assisting leads far beyond the small town they start in and to some truly dark places. (yeah, that's incredibly vague, but I'm faced with being vague or giving you a few thousand words almost spoiling the story beats on this one)
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THE DEAD HOUSE?
Yes, over the last couple of books particularly, Fiona's doing a good job on socializing, on connecting with people, on acting "normal" (a goal she longs for and yet doesn't want at all). I love seeing that kind of development, as much as we like to see damaged protagonists struggling to cope—it's always great to see them making healthier choices.
But at the same time...you put Fiona in a room alone with a corpse for too long so she develops a bond with the person she starts calling "Carlotta" (and resists using Carlotta's actual name when she's eventually identified)? I'm in. Fiona as the creepy detective who's way too interested in dead bodies is just fun to read about.
Bingham doesn't throw out all the progress she's made, Fiona just sidesteps it for a little bit. Her natural tenacity and the people skills that she's developing aid her in this investigation (and her self-destructive tendencies hinder her, too). It's really the best of both worlds as far as Fiona's character goes.
I wasn't as taken with this story as I wanted to be—as I expected to be. And when the final whodunit reveal was made, I'd been waiting for it for longer than I should have been—not because I'm all that clever, but who else could it have been? That said, when the motivation and methods behind the reveal are made clear? That blew me away and creeped me out.
I can see how this is going to help the overall arc of the series, it had some great moments—and any time spent in Wales with Fiona is a reward. But I wanted a bit more from this one. Don't start with this one if you're interested in the series, but if you've read the rest, you'll enjoy this one.
One of my favorite quotes of the book:
"I am not to be trusted."
First person. Not my usual cup of tea but I went for it because Fi peaked my interest. And kept it. She is unconventional in so many ways, and alarmingly fascinating to follow.
Favorite quotes:
"No theater this time. No hesitation. Just the awful feeling that decent human beings have when they encounter horror. I nod, to say that I know what he feels, which isn’t true but is what he needs to hear."
"I envy her her tears. I wonder what they feel like. I wonder if they hurt."
3.5 stars. Good crime novel with another "unique" detective narrator. The detective, Fiona, plays a fair amount of cat-and-mouse with the reader, withholding information about herself that seems important (she clearly has a problem, but what is it? autism? psychosis?), yet after awhile this becomes less bothersome as you get into the plot and wrapped up in Fiona's voice. She's damaged goods, but that makes,you root for her all the more. I'll read the next one in this series.
It’s the excellently developed characters that make this story special and unique. In particular it is Fiona herself who holds the reader’s attention and although the story is told from her perspective, we don’t always perceive or understand her mindset. Fiona is still suffering the after-effects of a mental illness called Cotard’s Syndrome and she has difficulty understanding the nuances and complexities of human conversation and interactions. Developing a new personality for her undercover work is particularly dangerous for her as she begins to have trouble separating her new self from her old and this escalates to an even higher level when a third identity is needed. This brave and feisty character is fascinating and ever changing. The other character that stood out for me was Vic, who at times is threatening and scary while at others shows a caring humanity.
The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths is an excellent addition to this series, the intricate plot is clever and explained in easily understood ways, the writing helps to set the rapid fire pace and although Fiona throws herself into dangerous situations without fully thinking about consequences, the author keeps the story plausible and leaves the reader eager for more.
Collegamenti
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This one was about King Arthur...