Rashomon in print
Rape is one of the most heinous crimes and one of the most difficult to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. When there is intercourse, the woman’s cry of rape is countered by the man’s assertion that it was consensual. Who is lying?
As both are true — men do rape, women do make the false claims — and there are no witnesses, it comes down arguments in court between misogynists and misandrists. Statuary rape is something else again, as the boy or girl is below the age of consent.
Novelists writing stories about rape also have the problem of whether to deal with the charge at face value. Couldn’t she have avoided it (with a knife at her throat?). As James Patterson notes in Cross Justice, there are ways of making women too helpless to resist.
Perhaps the most effective way is her being given a daterape pill without her knowledge. Which is what the school coach slips his students. But as Sarah explains, Mr Tarde is also on drugs and is an alcoholic as well, which drives the coach into rages. Did he murder a boy in a drug-fuelled rage?
To the investigating police in the North Carolina town of Starchville it’s an open and shut case. To his relations, he’s being framed. Sleuth Dr Alex Cross is called in. And his cousin Naomi agrees to defend Tarde. A good deal of the story is set in the local courthouse.
While Cross uncovers the secrets of the community in which he’d been born and couldn’t wait to leave, Naomi tackles the law enforcement officers on the stand. They stick to their stories.
Sarah’s rape testimony and the evidence are against her client. Cross brings in the FBI, who find discrepancies in the testimonies. Their focus is on the drugs found in his possession that he claims were planted. Who is the drug lord bringing them in? Cold (unsolved) cases are reopened.
This reviewer expects twists and turns in crime thrillers, but in Cross Justice the author doesn’t know when to stop bringing them in. There are so many, the plot resembles a pretzel. For whatever it’s worth, Sarah lied. Feminists won’t approve.
I have the impression that James Patterson on his own and with co-authors publish at least one book every two months. Keep up the good work.