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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 4, No. 35 |
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FOX EVIL  |
a rural English community
of TheColumnists.com
When I first saw the title "Fox Evil" on Minette Walters' new mystery novel, I was afraid she'd joined Al Franken on a campaign to discredit the increasingly right wing Fox News Network. No such luck. The book's not about an evil network, but rather an evil man who calls himself "Fox."
Alas, Franken's still by himself out there with a best-seller that takes on the Fox network and Walters' novel turns out to be something of a letdown, her second in a row, as a matter of fact, counting the less-than riveting "Acid Row." Minette might have had more fun planting a couple of murders at the feet of Rupert Murdoch and the Fox clan. At least I know I'd have had more fun.
For the record, though, let me say that I think Minette Walters is one of the very best mystery novelists working today. Her earlier works, like "The Sculptress," "The Echo," "The Scold's Bridle" and "The Shape of Snakes" are as good as any mysteries of the past 20 years. Her mysteries strive for social relevance and I think she usually finds a way to drag you into a mystifying crime while also teaching you something about the way our modern world works.
But "Fox Evil" is flawed by hauling out too many characters, not all of them fully devloped, and wrapping them up in a case that's awfully hard to follow/ Even worse, she pulls some surprise switches near the finale that just don't add up.
That said, she does start with an intriguing premise: A caravan of "squatters" moves in and occupies a tract of forest land in a secluded rural countryside, taking advantage of quirky British laws that permit homeless people to seize property that doesn't seem to belong to anyone else by simply occupying it.
But the leader of the squatters, a thoroughly disagreeable man named "Fox Evil," seems to have his own private agenda, which includes the destruction of Col. James Lockyer-Fox, a wealthy landowner who lives nearby. Some of the neighbors suspect that The Colonel may have murdered his wife a year ago, but got away with it because he's so influential with the local police. He's now being harassed by a couple of local women, who call him constantly with accusations of murder, and by a man who uses a "Darth Vader"-sounding voice-altering device to make even more threatening calls to him.
That's plenty of characters to care about, but Walters doesn't stop there. She gives us a tormented little boy who may or may not be the son of Fox Evil. And she gives us a female military officer who may or may not be the illegitimate daughter of The Colonel. And she gives us The Colonel's lawyer, who's trying to protect the old boy from all his enemies. While she's at all of that, she also gives us The Colonel's estranged son and daughter and half a dozen local townspeople who may or may not be part of the conspiracy to drive The Colonel away.
Walters is one of the better story jugglers in the business today, but this time she has too many balls in the air at one time. When they start to drop all around her, you may lose interest in what otherwise started out to be a pretty good yarn.
Walters also has fallen into a rut I don't much care for: Using phony "news" articles and TV news reports, sandwiched in between chapters, to keep us up to date on what may or may not be relevant to our society. This is getting tiresome. It worked wonderfully well in "The Shape of Snakes," one of the best mysteries of the last 10 years, but it really became a nuisance in "Acid Row" and "Fox Evil." Enough already.
Normally, Walters drafts such good characters that you can't put her books down. This time, she creates a great villain, but sets him adrift among a bunch of other characters you never really care about much. Better luck next time, Minette.
©2003 by Ron Miller.
The Ron Miller caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. The book
cover reproduction is ©2003 by G.P. Putnam's Sons.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
teaches classes in mystery and related topics at Whatcom Community
College in Bellingham, WA.
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