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3.0 out of 5 stars
Sometimes Divorced from Reality, Oct 18 2000
The title of this story has about as much to do with the contents of the book as would "Integrated from Zero to Infinity." This book is one of a series about detective Beaumont, all with similar legal phrases for titles. I've only read this one book.This story is about the murder of a Japanese businessman. It goes into Japanese-American culture including the samurai traditions, modern computer businesses, as well as anti-Japanese racism. However, the unbelievability of parts of the story, such as the part described below, leads me not to take any of the discussion seriously. The back cover and the inside front page hook us with a suspenseful scenario. They tell us that the investigators found the Japanese victim dead on the floor, an apparent suicide. Except that "an error in the ancient ritual pointed to ... murder." This makes us want to read more. However, I think that the author, J. A. Jance, took the intriguing scenario and wrapped at least the opening to the story around it, because the resolution was patently absurd. As the reader, we expect a scene of ritual suicide, set up all proper except for one tiny error seen only by the detective. However, a Japanese American investigator pronounces the scene as "totally wrong" for ritual suicide. Among other things, the victim's head was still attached to the body. Nevertheless, the (Caucasian) medical examiner persists with his theory of suicide, sarcastically shouting down every point of error. So instead of a subtle clue noticed only by a careful, intelligent observer, we have a bullheaded incompetent who refuses to heed someone who knows what he is talking about. Unfortunately, the author and the narrator do not recognize the incompetence. But this is nothing compared with what follows few days later. The narrator learns from the crime lab that the killing wasn't suicide after all. The victim had been bludgeoned on the head, yet for some reason, none the investigators (including the narrator, Detective Beaumont himself) saw it at the crime scene. "We couldn't see it until after we moved the body." Yeah, right. The narrator makes a snide remark every couple of paragraphs, and at the end of every chapter. An occasional snide remark is okay, perhaps even necessary. But I got tired of them quickly. There were several places where I kept remarking (sarcastically), "Great deduction, Watson." Those were points where the narrator carefully and observantly deduced the obvious. I am reminded of a another novel I read years ago, telling the story of a mystery writer whose latest novel was rejected for going way too far afield of believability. In the novel, the writer went underground herself to see what things were like. Maybe Jance should try something of the sort, although her writing in this novel was not nearly as bad as that of the fictional writer.
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