I thought about that and the world it's set in. But the only murder is the initial one. It isn't pretty but it's described without gratuitous detail. The focus is on the feelings of her looking at her friend, and bringing home what can happen to people on the streets. So it's affecting more than scary.
This paragraph shows well, I think, how Hunt looks at and deals with the people he's writing about...
I think about the Lovesey twins going through adolescence on their own, and then the forces that must have driven them to work the street. I think of their deft hands and brilliant minds, their interchangeability, androgyny and charm, their love of juggling, tumbling, pulling coins and scarfs out of orifices, most of all of the bravery with which they faced the world. They never allowed themselves to feel degraded no matter the disdain in which their work was held. Magician-nighthawk purveyors of lust, gorgeous sensuous objects of desire, they entered the dark subconscious of the city, maintaining their dignity in the face of all its sleaze and scorn.
And Hunt never loses sight of his characters dignity, their strengths and souls. He's writer as friend not voyuer. If anyone gets any bit of harsh treatment, it's the buyers of their services who think themselves above them. It doesn't dwell on what they do except in relation to why they are there and how it effects them. No gratuitous sex. Less so than most mainstream books theses days. It's a beautiful book. It's lightened all the way through with the woman's feel for and love of beauty in people and nature, both. Very poetic. |
