A question about the Hilary Tamar books
Jun. 17th, 2018 03:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrSo I just read Thus was Adonis Murdered and really enjoyed it except for the ending, which I found so deeply unpleasant I don't want to read any more of the series unless I can be sure the rest don't do anything similar. I know some of you have read them?
**** SPOILERS ***
So presumably none of the others will end EXACTLY the same way, because that wouldn't be much of a murder mystery series.
But they may do the same broad thing: Introduce characters whose lives are A Little Shocking And Unconventional but the main characters are fine with it, and that's all well and good until we get to the reveal where it turns out that Shocking Unconventionality led directly to the murder.
CSI did this constantly and I have very little patience for it, especially when the Shocking And Unconventional Thing That Leads To Murder is something like queerness.
I know there's other sympathetic queer characters in the book, and a vague queer vibe to the protagonists (especially Hilary) but the murderers are the only people actually in a same sex relationship and I just...really don't like the trope.
So, does it happen in the other books? Like, it turns out the murderer/victim dynamic was a result of being poly or trans or kinky or Secretly Jewish or something? It doesn't really help if it's like...innocent trans person is killed by mean bigot, they're still dead. The Weird Thing being something less connected to oppression like being a furry(*) or something is better but a warning would still be good.
(*)Trying to remember what the equivalent of furries was in the 80s/90s. I guess they did have furries, there just wasn't the internet to make them so visible. ...no self you do not want to look up the history of furries for a throw away example...
**** SPOILERS ***
So presumably none of the others will end EXACTLY the same way, because that wouldn't be much of a murder mystery series.
But they may do the same broad thing: Introduce characters whose lives are A Little Shocking And Unconventional but the main characters are fine with it, and that's all well and good until we get to the reveal where it turns out that Shocking Unconventionality led directly to the murder.
CSI did this constantly and I have very little patience for it, especially when the Shocking And Unconventional Thing That Leads To Murder is something like queerness.
I know there's other sympathetic queer characters in the book, and a vague queer vibe to the protagonists (especially Hilary) but the murderers are the only people actually in a same sex relationship and I just...really don't like the trope.
So, does it happen in the other books? Like, it turns out the murderer/victim dynamic was a result of being poly or trans or kinky or Secretly Jewish or something? It doesn't really help if it's like...innocent trans person is killed by mean bigot, they're still dead. The Weird Thing being something less connected to oppression like being a furry(*) or something is better but a warning would still be good.
(*)Trying to remember what the equivalent of furries was in the 80s/90s. I guess they did have furries, there just wasn't the internet to make them so visible. ...no self you do not want to look up the history of furries for a throw away example...
