Chapter 13 The man who killed his brother
Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2004 8:45 pm
This chapter consists of two conversations with Ginny doing most of the talking and Brew observing and usually not saying very much, interspersed with a car ride in which they consider the possibilities of the case.
First in the chapter Ginny and Brew arrives at the office of Martha Scurvey, who does not wish to see them. They go into her office anyway and find her smoking a pipe of hash or some similar compound. Ginny then proceeds to question her under pressure.
One of the curious things about the interrogation, which did not strike me as all that strange the first time I read the chapter (a long time ago now) is that Brew says almost nothing to anyone else the whole time. He asks one question of Martha Scurvey, and he talks to Ginny, but he never participates in the conversations she has with other people.
We do get a good insight into his method of working though, as we get to see his intuition strike home. The one question he asks of Martha Scurvey is inspired, although maybe not so very useful. Apparently this is his entire investigative technique at the moment, fortunately he has Ginny to take care of the details. (We see more of this kind of thing in later books.)
In essence the whole chapter seems like a quite straightforward summation of the plot of the book so far, something that does not come up all that often in most mystery stories. I suspect, however, that the facts we get in the chapter will not help a lot for those who likes to try to figure the mystery out on their own. I do not now remember what happens later in the book, but I do not have the impression that there is a very clever and mysterious plot at the bottom om it all. This book is all about character(s).
To make a comparison with other famous pairs of detectives in fiction (Holmes and Watson, Poirot and Hastings, Wolfe and Goodwin etc.) might be a appropriate at some point, and as I am writing this I will take the opportunity. In my personal opinion Brew comes off the better when compared with most of the 'sidekicks' in more famous detective stories, mostly because he has more 'character' than most of the others. There is also the fact that although she is quite competent at her work, Ginny Fistoulari is not an investigative prodigy like those aformentioned detectives. She stumbles, makes mistakes and doubts herself. Ideally, of course, I should compare the story to some more 'hard-boiled' detective stories, but I have slight knowledge of those. Generally all I can say is that while Ginny supplies the skill, the drive and the orderly approach to investigation, Brew supplies intuition and flashes of inspiration. I suspect that in more normal circumstances they would be quite effective at what they do. The two of them sometimes remind me of Wolfe and Goodwin, with some of the attributes reversed.
Hopefully this might inspire some comments about how Ginny and Brew investigates matters, as I see this as the basic theme of the chapter. Anybody have any comments on how they relate to other crime story figures, please chip in.
First in the chapter Ginny and Brew arrives at the office of Martha Scurvey, who does not wish to see them. They go into her office anyway and find her smoking a pipe of hash or some similar compound. Ginny then proceeds to question her under pressure.
One of the curious things about the interrogation, which did not strike me as all that strange the first time I read the chapter (a long time ago now) is that Brew says almost nothing to anyone else the whole time. He asks one question of Martha Scurvey, and he talks to Ginny, but he never participates in the conversations she has with other people.
We do get a good insight into his method of working though, as we get to see his intuition strike home. The one question he asks of Martha Scurvey is inspired, although maybe not so very useful. Apparently this is his entire investigative technique at the moment, fortunately he has Ginny to take care of the details. (We see more of this kind of thing in later books.)
In essence the whole chapter seems like a quite straightforward summation of the plot of the book so far, something that does not come up all that often in most mystery stories. I suspect, however, that the facts we get in the chapter will not help a lot for those who likes to try to figure the mystery out on their own. I do not now remember what happens later in the book, but I do not have the impression that there is a very clever and mysterious plot at the bottom om it all. This book is all about character(s).
To make a comparison with other famous pairs of detectives in fiction (Holmes and Watson, Poirot and Hastings, Wolfe and Goodwin etc.) might be a appropriate at some point, and as I am writing this I will take the opportunity. In my personal opinion Brew comes off the better when compared with most of the 'sidekicks' in more famous detective stories, mostly because he has more 'character' than most of the others. There is also the fact that although she is quite competent at her work, Ginny Fistoulari is not an investigative prodigy like those aformentioned detectives. She stumbles, makes mistakes and doubts herself. Ideally, of course, I should compare the story to some more 'hard-boiled' detective stories, but I have slight knowledge of those. Generally all I can say is that while Ginny supplies the skill, the drive and the orderly approach to investigation, Brew supplies intuition and flashes of inspiration. I suspect that in more normal circumstances they would be quite effective at what they do. The two of them sometimes remind me of Wolfe and Goodwin, with some of the attributes reversed.
Hopefully this might inspire some comments about how Ginny and Brew investigates matters, as I see this as the basic theme of the chapter. Anybody have any comments on how they relate to other crime story figures, please chip in.
