July 2016 Group Read - A Song From Dead Lips by William Shaw

[Bill]

I've finished it under the US title She's Leaving Home. Shall be following & participating in the discussion & shall try to have my full review up on the spoiler thread in a few days.

[Bill]

The totally boorish behaviour of the male policemen not just towards Tozer but to Breen (the 1st time Prosser called him 'Paddy' Breen should have informed him firmly that his Christian name wasn't Patrick & if he did it again, punched his face) as well was striking tho' fits the period accurately. Unlike calling a Scot 'Jock' or a Welshman 'Taffy', 'Paddy' was degrading. Some things really have improved in my lifetime.

I really liked Tozer, but that'll be another post.

[Bill]

I reckon it is time for me to post my review. First I shall have to formalise my standards for a successful historical.

[Bill]

The year 1968 seems surely the most tumultuous & memorable in my adult lifetime & I had the good fortune to spend some of it in England. So I probably can comment fairly on how well A Kiss from Dead Lips recreated the period. (The American edition is called She’s Leaving Home.) The loutish behaviour & remarks of the detectives Prosser & Carmichael towards the Woman Police Constable (as they were then designated) Tozer & DS Breen fit the era (I’d put women detectives right alongside women priests as proof that the world really is now a much better place than then) & I thought the almost forgotten Nigerian civil war well-worked into the plot tho’ we ought to have been told that the African characters were Igbos. Biafra wasn’t supported by either side in the Cold War which may be why the independence movement failed. I wish Shaw had put the money figuring in the plot to support the heroic effort by pilots flying famine relief in clapped out aircraft for Joint Church Aid (aka Jesus Christ Airways) - would have made the story much more poignant but maybe villains too sympathetic. The snobbish attitude towards Irish ‘Paddies’ in the building trade (now it’s Poles) seemed accurate too. (I crewed with a chap who renovated flats in London & that’s what he called his employees.) It was very surprising tho’ to find a bagel cafe in London, even if the owner is supposed to be a Jewish refugee; in the ‘60s I’m pretty sure I never saw a bagel outside NYC.

Yet I felt many period details were contrived & names or motor cars & aircraft dropped to lend false authenticity. A character drives a Jaguar but which model Jaguar would have made a big difference in knowing whether respectable or villain, & a Constellation would be rather long of tooth (JCA were flying them still). But the main problem was what many younger readers will believe authentic background, the almost exclusive attention to the Beatles. There were so many other huge groups in ’68 & the fab five were beginning to fade. A musically knowledgeable author such as Cath Unsworth would have done the setting more authentically.

But my principal difficulty was with Breen - an infectious depressive. His bereavement over his father was excessive & affected (however much he’d missed his father, he should have felt a sense of relief in having his life back too) & Breen treats Tozer with a standoffish chilliness for much of the story that I found churlish & offensive. She is a very warm & enthusiastic partner & anyone of normal sensibilities (whether or not romantically inclined towards her) should enjoy her company & welcome her support. The sneers of Prosser & Carmichael towards her, of course, reveal the absolute oafs they are. The villains are also quite obnoxious, & I found the final thriller pursuit highly unbelievable, worst of all by having Carmichael excrete in his pants, which was disgusting, unnecessary, and unfunny. I’ll not read any more of the series. Much as I’ll miss Tozer, whom I liked very much, Shaw s not an author whose company a sensitive reader of taste will enjoy.

[Bill]

You may be correct but I'm very much the introvert myself & I hope @ the time I'd have been more supportive towards Tozer than was Breen. My basic rule is to avoid weak & inadequate principal detectives.