I can't see either of the lads reacting in that way. It might be partly because of her opening, even - she gave me someone else's voice to start off with, and so the rest of it was always a few beats off, for me... But - it's more a characterisation thing, than a plausibility thing.

Yes, the first person intro sets us up for a completely different story, really. I'm glad it doesn't last longer than that paragraph.

Characterisation...I always find Doyle the hardest for writers to get "right." Meaning to draw him the way I see him. There's something more elusive about him...I'm not sure that there are contradictions in his canon character so much as a complexity that doesn't easily translate into prose?

Not that Bodie isn't complex, just that I'm happier with more versions of him, I think.