The Extent to Which the novel is typical of the crime/thrill
The book I read for my Specialist Study was Killing the Shadows written by Val McDermid. The book is about an academic psychologist, Fiona Cameron, who uses computers to help track serial offenders. I expected this book to have undeveloped characters and a very basic plot, some one gets murdered then someone catches the murderer, however I was very surprised to find complex characters as well as a very complex plot, which I did not expect in a book of this genre. The way in which the author has written the characters does make them real to the minds eye. I feel the characteristics of a crime/thriller novel are a crime to solve, a killer/murderer, a hero/detective (a good guy) and plot witch will get the reader involved. There are small part of blood and gut, the book is very graphic in describing these parts,"I don't want to think about the next bit. It wasn't nice. It's a lot harder to strangle somebody than it looks. Especially when you're wearing latex gloves and your hands start sweating and slipping inside them." page 101-102.However there is a romantic involvement to balance this out.The different threads through the plot made my involvement far more active, there was strong imagery produced by the
This quote is Fiona at the beginning of the book, thinking about what has happened to her investigating the murder/rape, and how she would appear as a victim also to clear her thoughts. I feel the plot was realistic and authentic, they way the murders are described in the murderers own words makes it feel more real, the insight into how the killers mind works is scary, however it also gives you an idea of how Fiona may see the killer, even though she uses geography to work out were the killer may be based, she also tries to get into the mind set of the murderer. The second is a series of murders in Spain, by a man who hates tourists because he thinks they are to blame for him loosing his job, and the third is trying to find the murderer who was originally one of Fiona Cameron's cases but it was taken a way from her. The way that the author allows an idea of the past gives you an insight into how she thinks, also her relation ship to Kit Martin, a crime/thriller writer seems real. I have noticed in other crime/thriller novels written by Val McDermid that her main "hero" characters all have a flaw, some it is a feeling of inadequacy, for Fiona it is the ghost of her sister. The characters are written in a way that makes them seem believable, the plot is complex however it is very addictive for me, once I started to read I could not put the book down. For example the main character is haunted by the thoughts of her murdered sister Lesley, "Some times I look at Kit and wish more than anything that you two could have known each other. My expectations of this genre were far different to what this book turned out to be. The character of Fiona Cameron has been written in a way in which the reader gets to know her, through out the novel, she is trying to redeem herself and her best friend for an unsolved murder/rape, she is trying to save her lover and she has the ghost of her sister following her, because she feels it was her fault that the killer was never found but it did cause her to become a psychologist. The authors style makes this book different crime/thriller novels. The authors use of the three cases being investigated at the one time made the book hard to follow because you could get caught in the moment, however it makes the genre far more interesting than my expectations. "The only kind of sudden death she might have to contemplate here would be her own, and then only if she was more careless than she thought she could manage. The plot does have a 'whodunnit' feel, but with the different threads from the other murders it makes you think and also the interaction between the other murders.
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Acceptance Essays
