Penric and Desdemona

Author: Lois McMaster Bujold 

Set in the fabulous fantasy world of Five Gods, the series follow the life and adventure of a Sorcerer name Penric and his Demon Desdemona.  Expanding the world created with The Curse of Challion. 

I really enjoyed the expansion and get to know more about the intricacies of how the daily life works and the limitation of Gods, being one of the mottos: no hands but ours. And that between Gods, they “lend” hand to each other, time and time again, we can see that Penric doesn’t only do deeds for Bastard, his chosen God, but he receives some indirect directions from Father, Mother, Daughter and Son.

Starting from Penric’s Demon, we grow together with the protagonist, how he “acquires” his demon, save her and they establish a friendship that wasn’t done before.

From Penric's short novels series, my co-favorite is: The Orphans of Raspay and The Assassin of Thasalon.

The Anti-Ransom: "Thirty Thousand Silver Royals... That's what they're paying us to not leave you here"

For Five Gods, the first time I read this sentence, had me laughing hysterically for 10 minutes. Second time, another ten minutes.

Bastard using Pen as answer of prayer is sooooo amusing (not for Pen of course), but that just how Gods work, isn't it?

Second favorite passage: Mother negotiating for Jedula Corva is just endearing. And certainly, Bastard did his best, sent Pen, and 3 additional messages to Orbas.

I just love these 2 short stories 🤍

 

Knot of Shadows

The hardest one of all Penric's short novels.

It just broke my heart what happened with Kyems and Agno.

Kyems because we can encounter such tragedy in real life, framed with crime not committed just because the other person is a scumbag.

Agno, is pure tragedy. Barely a boy...

And Penric knowing how the family will react, not gratitude for his hard work but blaming him not being there sooner 😞

Interesting that the death magic can work only on desperate ppl, the one that if not that way, they would self-sundered.

E.C.R. Lorac

 

Earlier this year had the opportunity to know another Golden Age Crime Mystery Queen: E.C.R. Lorac, the pen name of Edith Caroline Rivett through podcast: Sheddunit.  Her pen name comes from her initials and Carol reversed. She is described as “forgotten” and reprinted by The British Library.

It was a surprise to me, when I found 6 of her books in a bookstore. Took them all without actually reading anything prior.  And she really deserves the title of “Crime Mystery Queen”.  While she didn’t feature any flashy detective as Holmes or Poirot, one can enjoy greatly the adventures of her down to earth, very “common” detective C.I.D. Inspector MacDonald.

The first on I read was set in countryside, a very refreshing POV from the “mansions”, “resorts” or “millionaires”.  Involved parties are commoner, farmers or just plain normal folks.  Her description of the landscape is compelling and beautiful.  The reader got to see the other side of Britain during the WWII.  The difficulties they faced day to day and other restrictions which and be impediment or aid the inspector during the investigation.

At first, it was very difficult to keep with her style, in English which isn’t my predominant language, but at the 6^th and last book I have of her, even before finishing it, I was missing her world.

Three of the six books I bought set in London and three in countryside, maybe TBL chose them on purpose.  It certainly gives me a very good perspective of the different lifestyle of city and countryside.  Checkmate to Murder described perfectly the atmosphere of war time London.  One always took peace time from granted, but when you read something so descriptive and detailed, makes one be more grateful and appreciate the life we´re having.

Her plots definitely are good. I really enjoy reading interactions between the characters and trying to fight off the inspectors (Murder in the Mill-Race), almost every book I guessed out how the murder was committed before the end, but I’m not picky reader regarding tricks and mystery solving. What I really love of crime mystery is “motive”, which Lorac give plenty of variety.  Last thing, she won’t force lots of romance in the books!! 

If you like Golden Age Mystery, you must give her a try.

我對抗跟蹤狂的七百天戰爭

 

作者：內澤 旬子

翻譯：林詠純

首先～感謝Podcast 『惡之根 我的犯罪研究日誌』的抽獎，讓我有機會認識這本非常有意思、有意義的書。

進入正題：

在這一個以父權建立起來的社會，身為女性總會多多少少面臨各種性別帶來的困擾。跟蹤狂這種事情在東西方社會都層出不窮 ，而且以悲劇結尾的更是不少。所以從一開始，對這本書的興趣就非常的高。

以下嚴重暴雷

作者把整個過程分為三個部分，而三個部分又非常的分明，重點完全不同，讓人可以感到當事人的心路歷程，以及心態上的變化。

第一部開始，就是百分百的日式寫法，細細的、完完整整的，把當事人的心理起伏呈獻給讀者。可是，事發當時，她根本沒辦法好好的把她的情緒傳遞給周遭的人，或者，是日本的社會風氣讓她必須委婉的表達，亦或是，當今社會的型態，人們不會靜下心來慢慢的體會對方，就算是『被害者』，公務人員只能按照規範運作，來完成這個『任務』，而不是把她當成一位有需求、有情緒、需要人安撫活生生的人。就算以讀者的角度，一開始我也是很不耐煩，把她形容成一位叨叨絮絮，OS過多的作者。如果換個角度，把她看成是一位正在經歷著巨變、處於極度不安的女性，就有辦法產生共鳴，畢竟，在社會上，多少都會面臨讓妳不安的場面。

看著她從報案，到檢察官那邊做筆錄，一律都是男性，沒有社福人員（不知道日本有沒有這種制度？），或者心理醫師在旁扶導，她必須一次次的揭開傷口給他們看，可是，他們連共鳴都沒辦法做到，採取的是公事公辦的態度，讓人很不是滋味。整個過程，她唯一收到的類似於安慰的話語，是來自H檢察官的簡單『真是辛苦您了。』。這句涵蓋了她連夜搬家、找人照顧心愛的山羊，學習怎麼使用110手機，來回奔波於警局、找房子、高松檢察院等等，這些確實跟公務員無關，可是，不代表當事人不累、不怕、不會手足無措，尤其是她已經40歲了，社會上默認她應該懂得『自理』，不管幾歲，只要是人，面臨這樣的打擊，都會不知道怎麼辦。

第一部看著她不知所措的努力尋找出路，可是陰錯陽差之下，反而事情越來越複雜，她被加害人怨恨，I律師非常的草率把她的案子了結，放任她被對方的律師情緒勒索，導致做出非常差勁的決定：和解。

第二部是在她得到非常糟糕的和解後，繼續努力的過生活，出版了書，並且開始努力的從打擊中恢復，看著她沒辦法面對陌生人，尤其是男性，長期處於緊繃的狀態，甚至需要聘請男性友人陪同她出席活動，就可以感到深深的無奈。跟蹤狂的複犯率太高了，並且對方更改了手法：網路霸凌，在論壇上公布各種不實的消息，抹黑、中傷她，可是論壇方打著『言論自由』的旗子，讓加害者無限上綱，肆意妄為，這是這個時代該面對的問題，言論過度自由，而不需要負起自己說的話的責任時，養出來的犯罪者。回歸正題，當她發現，和解書根本無法抑制、壓制住對方時，她想再度請警察幫忙，立案，可是因為已經和解過了，警察按規章制度的說：民事糾紛請自行處理（並未照原文寫），她真的非常痛苦與無奈，所幸她已經走出第一部的頭腦不清晰，轉而開始反擊。她自掏腰包，聘請律師拿到證據，再到警察局立案，出手反擊。有了第一次的經驗，這次她跟警察往來更順利，刑警也非常盡責的幫她調查，蒐集證據。反擊的狼煙燃起。

第三部是我最喜歡的部分。法庭攻防戰就沒什麼太多好說的，精彩歸精彩，我喜歡的是她找到了能理解她的人。以被害人的角度理解她的委屈、無奈、驚恐、無措，在日本這麼一個推崇『不給別人添麻煩』的社會，被跟蹤是一件讓她幾乎無法維持正常生活的狀態，雖然她是被害者，可是社會形態並不會因為妳是被害者就讓妳，反而會給妳增加更多的負擔。在這樣的情況下，她找到了小早川明子老師，並瞭解『跟蹤狂病』，讓她如遇知音。

因為跟蹤狂的被害者最擔心的是複犯，如果把跟蹤狂當成一種病來治療，反而讓被害人能更安心的回歸社會，正常生活，因為目前為止，被害人通常只能躲躲藏藏，隱姓埋名的生活，而這樣根本不是生活！她在第三部的後段寫了非常詳細的見解，引用了其他歐美國家的案例、作法：英國、澳洲、加拿大、美國、德國、義大利等國家（對，歐美不是只有美國，謝謝。）。題外話，英國是最早建立相對健全的司法制度國家，所以很多司法改革他們也會比較早開工。

她對整件事情的分析讓人驚嘆，我有一位朋友，非常符合她描述的常見被害者的成長背景：不美滿的童年、自卑、過渡的壓抑，她也經歷多次的性騷擾、一次跟蹤，還好她的跟蹤狂有被勸退。

總體而言，如果能建立起全面的從教育、警察、檢察官、監獄等等健全的防護網，讓跟蹤狂就醫，目前為止，恢復的程度非常高，這個對被害者反而更重要，除非你能把跟蹤狂關一輩子，不然出來就是複犯，不如讓他們服刑後，必須接受強制性的心理治療來的安全。

整本書作者跟我們分享了整個過程，她面臨的困境、難處，她身心靈的壓力，如何反應在她的健康上（高燒、癲癇），這些種種無形的『成本』非常可怕，又無可估算。她的一句，比起『走在墨西哥的暗巷』還好，讓人悲哀，因為在墨西哥就算是在街上走是一件可怕的事情，可是在家裡是可以放鬆、生活的地方，絕對不會像她那樣在家還心驚膽戰，無法自己（當然有例外）。

最後以千禧年三部曲・直倒蜂窩的女孩裡的一句話『不是所有人能負擔起安全的生活』（自己翻譯，正式版本請看書）。