Question L

[Jonetta]

Frank was an intimidating policeman but seems at a loss to manage the workmen in his home. Why? Maeve eventually gets the job done...was that unexpected? Why could she resolve the problem that Frank couldn’t?

[Phrynne]

Frank has not been in the position of being in charge before, but I think he should really have been firmer. The author is presenting Maeve as being capable of anything - I did not really accept that a girl could deal with a gang of builders. In reality they would have laughed at her but it made a good story:)

[Robin]

Maeve seems like a "take charge" kind of person. She could have told the carpenters that she knew they were drawing out the project but I'm not sure they would have taken her seriously. She is a young nanny to a little girl. What kind of problems could she cause them?

[Jonetta]

Frank’s so out of his element and this is clearly Maeve’s strength...reading people and figuring out what motivates them into action. That’s the way of a grifter. I knew she’d resolve this.

Frank was a cop, not a manager. He’s skilled at investigations and intimidating people to talk. That’s very different from getting them to do something. And, he knew nothing about home construction.

[Veronica]

Maeve said she didn't know anything about home construction either when Sarah asked her. But she knows what a house is supposed to look like, which seems silly to me. The workmen could've still done a shoddy job or left important things unfinished and the house still look "correct". I felt this was a silly development.

I also have a hard buying that Frank couldn't have put the fear of God into the workmen to work faster. Part of me wonders if maybe Frank was holding back on the workmen in order to prolong the project and thus the wedding...not because he doesn't love Sarah because he clearly does and has for a long time. But I think Gino hit on the truth on the wedding day...Frank still carries the fear that he's not really good enough for Sarah. Maybe subconsciously he was allowing things to drag out.

[Jonetta]

Interesting perspective, Veronica. I didn’t get the sense that he wasn’t in a hurry to get married but could have missed that.

The home construction thing? They were just dawdling and the difference between Maeve and Frank was that she observed them and he didn’t. She saw right through them. Maeve’s seen most scams out there.

[Lauren]

Very good points, Veronica, and I agree that Frank may have been procrastinating over the wedding for those exact reasons.

Like Jonetta says, Maeve might not know construction, but she knows a scam when she sees one. In fact, she said that it was the foreman's lying that she picked up on rather than knowing anything about building.