Novels No. 66

 

Shari Lapena. What Have You Done? Canada: Doubleday Canada, 2024.

It's a bit of a relief to turn to more or less standard suspense drama. The murder of a high school's most popular girl affects her numerous friends and their families in a small town. Diana Brewer was not only pretty, she was notable in academics as well as sports, and always had a kind word for everyone. Naturally, people wonder with a shiver of fear if a local person could have done such a ghastly thing, dumping her strangled, nude body in farmer Roy Ressler's field. Boyfriend Cameron Farrell is devastated, so are her friends Riley and Evan. Cameron last saw Diana when he dropped her at home the night before. All the parents and teacher Paula Acosta, school principal Kelly, track & field coach Brad Turner, Aaron Bolduc, boss at her part-time job, are reeling. But someone is lying and someone is holding back information during police questioning.

Detectives Stone and Godfrey are a low-key presence while this passel of people agonizes, some wondering whether to correct little lies they've told. Story narrative and POV move between adults and teenagers, with parents wanting to protect their children above all. As the last person to see Diana, Cameron is detained, caught in a lie about his timing that night. Yet why had Diana privately complained to Kelly about Turner's inappropriate behaviour—Brad, who is engaged to marry Ellen Ressler soon. Then there's that creepy man who was harassing Diana at work. Two excellent candidates for being the killer. But let's face it, the main characters examine their worries to the point of excess. Not to mention Diana's ghost that pops in and out without much substance.

Lapena is usually reliable for a tale with a twist but the repetitive mental agonizing almost smothers any suspense. You have to appreciate teenagers, even though these ones are often painted more like small children than thriving juveniles. No thrills here; I'd call it a mild mystery.

Bits

▪ How will she deal with this pain? She can't let Diana go. She will never be ready to let Diana go. (36)

▪ Someone must have driven up this isolated road and carried the girl into his field and left her there for the birds. (40)

▪ Privately, I think Cameron was getting too possessive, and it was starting to bother Diana. (42)

▪ It disturbs me, what Riley's thinking. It's obviously disturbing her too. (51)

▪ As she calms, Brenda knows that her life is over now too. Because there's nothing left for her. How will she go on? (67)

▪ All his attempts to brush off her questions on the phone seem only to have made her more certain that something's not right. (155)

▪ She can't just accept this disturbing information and have everything go back to normal. (170)

▪ I should have told Riley. Or my mother. I should have told them everything. (242)

▪ "What about the other girl?" she asks. "What's she going to say?" (255)

David Rotenberg. The Hua Shan Hospital Murders. Toronto: McArthur & Company, 2003.

Where did this come from? You guessed it: the random choice pile from in-house library. I gave up on a New Zealand novel thick with unfamiliar indigenous references and incomprehensible idiomatic dialogue that drove a depressing atmosphere throughout a dark story. Not at all sure that this one has less culture shock, being in the middle of a series about Inspector Zhong Fong, head of Shanghai's Special Investigations. His previous adventures are alluded to, suffice to say he's returned from forced exile "west of the Wall" with a new wife, Lily, who happens to work in his department as a crackerjack forensic scientist. A very old (and murdered) skeleton, found on a construction site, gets their attention because it's Caucasian and crimes against foreigners are Fong's precise mandate.

More immediately concerning is some anti-abortionist activity, possibly fueled by extreme religious beliefs. A secret agent known to some as Angel Michael bombs a surgical room in a city hospital's abortion clinic. Abortion clinics are everywhere, state-sanctioned because of the government's one-child policy. The bombing reveals a metal box holding a human fetus, inscribed with "This blasphemy must stop." Fong's assistant Captain Chen and his "fireman" Wu Fan-zi are kept busy hunting for the perpetrator, fearing more clinics will be targeted after a second such box appears at Hua Shan Hospital. Arson specialist from Hong Kong, Joan Shui, is called in. Politics of the day—complicated and sometimes opaque to us westerners—affect Fong's investigative decisions. The man's intellectual depths include an appreciation of Shakespeare!

The novel not only presents a compelling crime story, it's an eye-opener to a certain period of China's history. Quite an achievement, and my admiration increased with each development, wavering only slightly over the madman's religious excess. Illegal traffic in antiquities, Robert's mysterious mission, Shanghai's wartime Jewish ghetto, a sinister cohort in the USA, Chinese humour, and the qualities of phosphorus—Rotenberg covers an amazing span. Given the publication date, it's oddly satisfying how many themes resonate with today's political reality.

Bits

▪ Robert let out a warm breath that misted the window. With his baby finger he printed the words: Silas Darfun rots in hell. (11)

▪ Lily gave them a 10-percent deposit and her very best I'm-a-cop-so-don't-fuck-with-me look. (41)

▪ "What's the difference," the man said. "They're all dead. Grisly business they were involved in, anyway. Butchers butchered." (45)

▪ Fong had no sympathy for those who rode the wave of politics when they were tossed broken and bleeding on the rocks. (51)

▪ The second blast dwarfed the first. It ripped through the entire fourth floor of the People's Fourteenth Hospital. (113)

▪ "Never been on fire before Wu Fan-zi?" she said with a quiver of hysteria on the fringes of her voice. (117)

▪ "Now just settle down and let's hear what the little Commie bastard has to say for himself." (131)

▪ The light had created the world but the darkness had come and encased the light. The soul was light encased by the body. (161)

▪ He knew it was risky to raise that kind of money quickly. It could attract attention. But he had no other choice. (167)

Flavour

▪ "He's the bishop of Shanghai," said the cop as naturally as if he were saying that there is seldom very much chicken in an order of General Tzo's chicken. (47)

▪ Then the man spat out, "That's like a merchant hanging a sheep's head to sell dog meat." (48)

▪ Despite the People's Republic of China's takeover of Hong Kong, most of the officers around the table had been raised on a steady diet of hatred for the old English Protectorate. (57)

▪ "What do peasants look like – mud that got up and walked." (89)

▪ It was pretty much inconceivable to most Chinese actors that there is a way of acting without a cigarette. (103)

▪ But they never really trusted Shanghai up there in Beijing so men like the one standing in Fong's doorway were put in positions of power just to be sure those uppity Shanghanese never forgot who really runs the Middle Kingdom. (171-2)

▪ This was a Chinese cop. Just one step up from a thug or one down from a party man. (174)

▪ "China is the ocean that salts all rivers," Fong quoted quietly. (182)