Sara really was all heart, all heart and passion, including sometimes rage, and quite unreasonable rage at that. But he loved even her anger, righteous or not, because it was rich and real. Valerie was too sparse in spirit ever to feel anger like that, but she was annoyed practically all the time in some baseless, unfocused way. Valerie's emotions were a sort of surface irritant, an affliction like eczema, to be lived with or scratched at.This was my favourite passage from the murder-unthrilling-mystery Fearful Symmetry by Morag Joss. In fact, it pretty much describes the novel, which was more centred on the relationships between different characters and the constant need for illicit sexual gratification than on who-dunnit. It begins quite competently with a quite-intriguingly-described letter-bombing death but the lag between the murders is far too long, and there is not even menace to warrant any interest at all in ferreting out the murderer. The cello-wielding sleuth, furthermore, is far more interested in getting herself laid by a very-married police chief than in finding the murderer.
It has been ages since I picked up a murder-mystery (which has never really been a favoured genre of mine) but I gave this a chance. I should've given that chance to the Three Investigators instead - less art perhaps, but more thrill and mystery.
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