2 out of 4 stars
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Veterans Day is the first in a series of novels featuring ex-lawyer turned private investigator, Mary Jane Morris. In this fictional work about corruption, greed, and the public’s disregard of the plight of US veterans, J.J. Jorgens pays homage to the likes of Nancy Drew, Lisbeth Salander, Jane Marple, and the rest of the “sisterhood of detectives” that the author adores so much.
Told entirely (albeit inconsistently) in the first person, the book introduces 38-year old Mary Jane Morris as she ghoulishly crafts her own obituary. We learn that she is a kayaking enthusiast who loves dogs, single-malt scotch, and her Uruguayan gaucho/boyfriend, Lorenzo. We also learn that her erstwhile partner and mentor, David McHale, has been murdered, and in unraveling the circumstances leading to his death, Mary Jane herself has become a target. In one darkly humorous paragraph, Jorgens blends the best qualities of the detective sisterhood – Drew’s wit, Salander’s spunk, and Marple’s shrewdness – into one archetypal heroine.
The story transports us back to a Halloween night in Washington DC. Mary Jane has just responded to a distress call from David but found to her horror that she has arrived too late. Although the police ruled David’s death as a suicide, Mary Jane knows better. Armed with her own brand of sleuthing skills, Mary Jane exposes a nefarious scheme that involves government officials trying to rip off US veterans of their hard-earned benefits.
This is not a spoiler. Veterans Day is surprisingly very upfront about its plot, leading one to hope that there is more beneath the surface. Sadly, this is as deep as it goes. Veterans Day is a straightforward ride to an underwhelming finish with none of the twists or turns that one would expect from a detective novel. This is not surprising, as the author’s goals appear to center on two things: to “invent a detective and write stories about her” and to impart a “strong sense of place.” While there was, indeed, a sense of character and place in Veterans Day, it lacked the sense of mystery and coherence that would have made it into the book that it aspires to be.
As a character, Mary Jane is interesting in her own right. But after packing such a strong impression in the opening scene, Jorgens fails to sustain her character’s edge and wit. Since Mary Jane was modeled after “smart and resourceful” female detectives, I truly wanted to be awed by her prowess. Two things made this nearly impossible. First, the narrative was besieged with typos, missing punctuations, and misspelled or missing words. Because this is Mary Jane’s point of view, something like “hair-brained scheme” makes it so easy to forget that she is supposed to be “smart.” Second, Mary Jane’s so-called sleuthing skills are dubious at best, and her decisions sometimes seem foolish. The scene where she got blackmailed by a seagull was hilarious, but it also cast some serious doubts upon her ability to conduct surveillance properly, not to mention her proficiency as a private investigator.
On the other hand, Jorgens was very successful in depicting the political and physical landscape of Washington DC. Readers who have never been to the place will surely appreciate the details, but the added descriptions and historical references can also be unwieldy and unnecessary. Jorgens’ writing style is more narrative than descriptive, a style that tells but does not show. Mary Jane narrates everything, even most of what the other characters should be saying. For instance, this is Mary Jane furiously debating with a traffic officer:
This is Mary Jane trying to wheedle information from another character:I asked him what kind of morons would close all the bridges leading from Virginia to Washington at the same time. He said the Virginia and D.C. transportation morons got in a fight over schedules…
Finally, this is Mary Jane flirting with a guy:He reminded me that when somebody confesses things to him, he can’t reveal them, even if there’s a danger to other people. However, he said if I looked it up, I would find that several graduates from the…
More often than not, Mary Jane speaks for the other characters in the “he said-I said” speech pattern of an accomplished gossip, so that even though the interaction is happening at that very moment, readers do not get a sense of the nuances of the characters or the dynamics of their relationships.He had a penthouse with a spectacular view upstairs and a bottle of vintage French champagne he’d been saving for someone special like me. He had hot videos up there, you know, risqué but tasteful. I patted him on the cheek and said we didn’t have to rush things.
There was also one critical discrepancy in the narrative, where Mary Jane, who is tied to a chair, inexplicably walks over to a couch. The next sentences then reveal that she is still bound to the chair and apparently has never moved. Such inconsistencies are unfortunate—but not unavoidable. Another round of proofreading and editing should be in order.
Veterans Day gets 2 out of 4 stars from me. After a strong start, the errors and inconsistencies in the narrative and the dullness of the writing overpowered whatever charms spunky Mary Jane Morris brought to the table. In addition, the lack of dialogues in many portions sucked all the urgency, outrage, and suspense out of the story, leaving a bone-dry shell that read more like a summary rather than a complete novel.
If you are looking for a book with a "strong sense of place," then Veterans Day will whisk you off on a tour around Washington DC. But if you are a Drew, Salander, or Marple fan just like me, I doubt that you would find this book satisfying.
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Veterans Day
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