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At a concert for 40,000 people, country singer Tasia McFarland, as she prepares to make a stunt entrance into her act, tells her support staff "He's after me. This is life and death." Before she embarks on her planned stunt, she takes out a Colt pistol and starts waving it around, first having locked herself on a balcony. As she begins to sing, she incorporates the gun into her act but, more shockingly, two helicopters crash and a loud noise erupts and Tasia McFarland, ex-wife of the President of the United States, falls dead. Jo Beckett is a forensic psychiatrist consulting for the SFPD. It is her job to decide on the nature of victims' deaths. She must do a psychological autopsy on Tasia McFarland and, since it is not possible to determine by other means, decide whether Tasia was murdered, or died by suicide -- or even accidental death. But Tasia suffered from bipolar disorder Furthermore, there are a number of conspiracy theories circulating regarding Tasia's spectacular demise. A site calling itself 'Tree of Liberty' expresses views that are clearly inimical to the President but this is only one place that is disapproving at best and hostile at worst. The site is run by someone calling himself Thomas Paine and he is accusing the president of complicity in Tasia's death. Another player in the game of the life of Tasia McFarland is Ace Chenauld. He was due to ghostwrite Tasia's autobiography. He is convinced Tasia was about to reveal explosive secrets concerning the early (and perhaps not so early) life of the President. In the light of the controversy, Vienna, Tasia's sister, implores Jo to discover what really happened to her sister. In contrast with the drama of the tale is a chapter about Jo's neighbour, an inventor who owns a monkey. An over-enthusiastic woman journalist (is it possible such a person could exist?) tries to get footage outside Jo's house. Instead of the scoop she expects, she has a close encounter with the monkey, Mr. Peebles, as well as with a small robot, Ahnuld, whom she describes (incorrectly) as "a bomb sniffer robot." If circuitous plots packed with incidents are the way to attract readers, this book has every chance of being a bestseller. From my point of view, however, it may be just a little overpacked. Perhaps I'm overly critical but I do like a cleaner plot. The characterisation in the novel is reasonably convincing. Tasia McFarland, what we see of her, is a good example of bipolarity. The baddies as well as the just plain crazies also bear a stamp of the truly genuine. As to the politicians, well, we all hear tales about their ilk so it's possible that they, too, represent genuine specimens of their kind. On the whole, I think readers addicted to crime fiction will enjoy this example of their favourite genre. § Denise Pickles has been reviewing for RTE for many years. She lives in Australia.
Reviewed by Denise Pickles, June 2010
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