CRIME
Mystery of the missing maidens
M.S. NAGARAJAN
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The book has all the attributes of a thriller.
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Gone; Jonathan Kellerman, Micheal Joseph: An Imprint of Penguin Books, Pp. 365. £450.
WILKIE COLLINS (1824-89), author of The Woman in White and The Moonstone is considered to be the progenitor of detective fiction. From then on, we have a whole lot of writers who have further developed this mystery/crime/detective genre. The works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot), Erle Stanley Gardner (Perry Mason), Leslie Charteris (Simon Templar), Sexton Blake — novels by diverse hands have been lapped up by generations of ravenous readers thirsting for adventure and excitement.
Thrillers about spies were later offshoots. Ian Fleming's 007 James Bond novels have not only attracted readers of all ages but have also become blockbusters. Considered books of the hour by literary pundits, these writers have always been bestsellers commanding a wide international reading public. Jonathan Keller's Gone, a clinical psychological crime novel, combines many elements of this popular genre of detective fiction.
Young and gorgeous Michaela Brand, 23 and Dylan Meserve, 24, a pair of frustrated screen hopefuls, stage a drama of getting carjacked at gunpoint. This is their publicity stunt for gaining the attention of Hollywood. Quite soon their enactment of abduction is discovered as a hoax and the two are sentenced to community service to rehabilitate themselves in society.
When Michaela is murdered, Alex Delaware, the private detective psychiatrist and his companion Milo Sturgis, the sergeant, take up the case. The plot thickens as more and more murders come to light. Homicide investigation finally accounts for 11 victims, eight females and three males.
Tangled investigation
How the detective and the police unearth these mysterious deaths and murders forms the plot. The whole dark and tangled labyrinthine investigation process is narrated through interviews of suspects and visits to crime spots. The narration is spotted with bizarre, gory details. The minutia of trivial details described in all their fullness deters the progress of the mystery of the plot by calling attention to themselves. Every character and every item of food consumed in a variety of eating-places are flooded with details irrespective of the importance of the character and the situation involved.
Overemphasis on the externals does not contribute to any knowledge of the inward nature of men and women. Characters are seldom kept apart. They seem to exist on the periphery.
"Tall and narrow-hipped and busty, she put a lot of roll-and-sway into her walk. If her breasts weren't real, their free movement was an ad for a great scalpel artist. Her face was oval and smooth, blessed by wide-set aquamarine eyes that could feign spontaneous fascination without much effort, balanced perfectly on a long, smooth stock of a neck" (14).
Here is a description of the buffet Milo at Cafe Moghul, a Pakistani restaurant, where Milo dines: He was seated behind three plates heaped with vegetables, rice, curried lobster, and some kind of tandoori meat. A basket of onion naan was half full. A picture of clove-flavoured tea sat at his right elbow (80).
Gone has all the attributes of a suspense thriller. But to look for architectonics and verisimilitude in plot construction, proper delineation of characters and focalised narration would be too much to expect from any pop fiction.
Gone makes quick and engaging reading. What more do you want?
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