Comments on Pens Fatales: Is There a Time to Kill? by Juliet

This is sort of depresssing, but let me add to the...

2010-03-01T01:12:12.543-08:00

This is sort of depresssing, but let me add to the depression levels. Sydney, where I live, a few years ago, had a case where a man loaded a gun, went to the home of another man and shot him point blank.

The (dead) victim had been charged with child rape of 2 little girls who were relatives of the killer. On the face of it, the evidence against the victim was unusually strong, but no court case had begun.

THe killer pleaded not guilty by reason his mind was unhinged by his personal certainty that the victim would hurt another child.

The jury found him...not guilty.

I do not envy that jury

2010-02-25T12:17:07.253-08:00

I do not envy that jury

Wow, intense stuff, Julie. I like to think that I ...

2010-02-24T16:16:22.552-08:00

Wow, intense stuff, Julie. I like to think that I know the difference between right and wrong, but the brain and the heart play by a different set of rules.

Well said, Mysti. You're right, of course, th...

2010-02-24T10:09:54.119-08:00

Well said, Mysti. You're right, of course, that the tragedy is in leaving Aaron Vargas, and so many like him, no choice other than to commit yet another crime which will make his life even more difficult. Where the human heart and soul fractures, indeed.

And Sophie --funny that I wasn't thinking of Stella at all with this post, when it should have been so obvious! You're right that your book allows people to indulge in the fantasy of what one might do, though one mustn't and wouldn't, not really.

One of my favorite revenge stories is Fay Weldon's Lives and Loves of a She-Devil, a glorious foray into the actions of a woman who decides to wreak revenge upon her husband and his lover. (Skip the dreadful Hollywood movie, but the bbc miniseries was good fun, and the novel even better). Ultimately, the vengeance consumes the woman seeking justice...but it's a fun ride while it lasts! I think fiction can give us that vicarious thrill, which allows us to be civilized in real life.

The real tragedy is it takes a community to enable...

2010-02-24T09:50:35.023-08:00

The real tragedy is it takes a community to enable child predators. The wives who ignore signs that their husbands "aren't right" or who side with the husband when the child does speak out, relatives who know something happened but refuse to contact law enforcement, parents trying to "protect" their hurt children from a rough-and-tumble legal system, laws that are outmoded, cops that aren't trained in how to interrogate a child, laws that don't take into account the permanent damage inflicted on a child who loses all sense of self and identity at the hands of a predator, law enforcement data systems that don't work together, a medical community that is woefully behind investigating and understanding predatory behaviors and their removal (though, to be fair, we'll have a whole Brave World of new problems when they do figure it out), oh and messed up health care system that makes mental health resources nearly impossible to access for all but the wealthiest Americans...health care that can relieve the pressure that makes an adult abuse survivor or a delusion college professor pick up a gun in the first place...

So instead of assuaging our collective guilt by giving one of the rare survivors who murders a pass, I wish we could all concentrate long enough to get some changes made. If I knew where to start, I would.

Julie, you are so write that those of us who write crime fiction are fascinated by the places where a human heart and soul fractures...

I'm with you on this one. And these stories -...

2010-02-24T08:18:58.806-08:00

I'm with you on this one. And these stories - the ones that twist our hearts, trying to fit justice into a picture so distorted by the horrors of twisted acts, do make compelling fiction because we are caught up in the impossible job of judging what's right. A few of my readers have commented that they could never approve of my own character's vengeful acts, but that they read to the end anyway....I think it's got to be because deep inside of us we all want to see the evil smited, and smited decisively.