Jump to content


This is a read only archive of the old forums
The new CBn forums are located at https://quarterdeck.commanderbond.net/

 
Photo

The Deaver Reading Club #4 Manhattan is my Beat


1 reply to this topic

#1 chrisno1

chrisno1

    Lieutenant

  • Crew
  • PipPip
  • 931 posts

Posted 18 January 2011 - 02:30 PM

Manhattan is my Beat was Jeffrey Deaver’s first novel. As such it isn’t a bad stab, but it lacks a lot of depth and reads like a series of static scenes, each one a small curio, offering goblets of colour and background, but never unearthing the soul behind anyone.

The story involves Rune, a video store assistant who is witness to a murder, and decides to do a little detective work on her own – for what she claims is adventure, the mystery of the quest, which she likens to The Lord of the Rings. Thing is, her goal is a suitcase full of one million dollars, and for a girl who lives her life outside of society and seems to be disdainful of the trappings of wealth, it seems rather odd she’s obsessed with finding sudden riches. Okay, she offers to split it with a couple of people, but still...

The main problem with this novel is Deaver’s heroine. Not quite a girl, not yet a woman, Rune is a boyish dreamer, more interested in old movies and fairies. She can’t hold down a job for long and struggles to form relationships. People seem to like her, but it’s never clear why; she’s clearly astute, and often sounds switched on, which makes her head-in-the-clouds background slightly bizarre. Additionally, everyone seems to be using her, whether it’s the video store owner, her economical-with-the-truth boyfriend, a room mate who uses their illegal squat to conduct affairs, the policemen who tail her or the bad guys who set her up for a fall. Rune really has a very bad run of luck in this story.

While the heroine is off-kilter at best, the other protagonists are paper thin, hardly described and given no opportunity to explain their motives or emotions; and this despite the dialogue heavy prose. It’s a black and white world in this version of New York, much like the film noir which provides the books title, a fictious movie called Manhattan is my Beat. Rune’s out of charcater breakdown as she watches the bank featured in the film being bulldozed merely reinforces that life isn’t as simple and reliable as the movies. Deaver draws on this point as his cast begin to reveal their true colours, but it’s all very heavy handed and I anticipated most of the revelations.

It isn’t a long book and I read it quite quickly over two days, but it felt like a long story, as if there were too many twists and turns to decipher. A lot of the incidental scenes, particularly the ones between Rune and Richard, could have been edited out as they slow down the tale dramatically and add very little of interest, except a few sexual references and some weird chat about fairy tales. There is some action (in fact the novel starts well with a murder by video camera) but this doesn’t redeem what feels a rather undercooked story. As I said, not bad for an initial stab.

#2 terminus

terminus

    Lt. Commander

  • Veterans
  • PipPipPip
  • 2469 posts
  • Location:Manchester, UK

Posted 18 January 2011 - 03:20 PM

I think we can probably give the novel a bit of leeway given it is one of his earliest novels - he's not yet mastered his craft to the level has has in his later work. The problems you mention in this novel with Rune don't seem to afflict The Sleeping Doll, the debut novel (though she previously appeared in a Rhyme novel) of Kathryn Dance - he seems to have got a better handle on writing a female protagonist. Hopefully this bodes well for our Bond Girl in CB.