Reading Room XIV - Pros and the Supernatural: Killing Notes by Ellis Ward

[murphybabe]

Title: Killing Notes
Author: Ellis Ward
Pairing: B/D
Link to Story:  Killing Notes

I have said, repeatedly, that I don’t like the supernatural in my Pros. I suppose it’s because I don’t like the supernatural, full stop, but I think that with most of the fic I have read, I feel that it takes away from the lads as I see them.

Consider the fic we’ve looked at in this round of Reading Room – Doyle abandons Bodie for a succubus, suddenly develops out-of-body abilities, is haunted by a demon who has been promised his soul, and is turned into an immortal. My issue with a lot of these fics is that the supernatural has somehow changed how I see ‘my’ lads behaving. I see them as being very grounded in the episodes, so to read about them dealing with the supernatural doesn’t fit my mental image, particularly when they lose their essential character in the story.

However, I like Killing Notes because they are trying desperately not to believe the evidence of their eyes.

The plot seems like any other case, initially – Bodie and Doyle are investigating an attack on a fellow CI5 agent, and are then handed her investigation to find out what happened to her and to the MPs who seem to be dying from unrelated causes. They meet up with a most unpleasant character, a dog breeder, who plays strange chants which seem designed to spook them.

They are struggling with other issues, including how to deal with the last case they’ve just been involved with. They are being teased because they’ve just come off an op where they were posing as lovers – cue much comment from Murphy, Anson and the like – and at one point they try to have a conversation to work through what happened and how they feel about it – but unfortunately the case keeps getting in their way. Throughout the fic the attraction between them builds, and at several points they are interrupted in their conversations because of the case.

The plot holes irritate me – okay, so Francesca can turn herself into a large dog. This doesn’t explain how she can get into two CI5 high-security flats at more or less the same time, or how she can jump from an upper-storey window without damage. But somehow I am able to gloss over these, perhaps because I know it’s a supernatural fic and therefore there will be things I don’t like about the plot anyway *g*

I like the banter between Bodie and Doyle as partners. I love the ending, with Bodie locked away in one of his hidey-holes, hoping against hope that he won’t be affected, but having made preparations just in case. Of course, Doyle isn’t fooled by his plans at all, and everything is happily resolved – apart from Doyle and the loss of his money *g* And in the end, Francesca Oldman isn’t supernatural at all:

“A tiny smile lightened Doyle's features. "I talked with the coroner, what's-its-name-Parker. Cowley instructed him to tell me all-every gory detail. Didn't understand the half of it," he conceded wryly, "but the upshot was that Francesca Oldman was in no way supernatural. Flesh and blood, he said. His best guess was that she was some sort of mutation."

Sneering, Bodie mocked, "A shape-shifting mutation?"

"You'd rather believe in satanic pacts? Being a rape-got child born on the wrong day-like Ollie Reed?"

So the reasons I enjoy this fic include that it’s case fic, I can see the lads of the episodes, they are trying to rationalise the apparent supernatural, and that in the end it isn’t supernatural at all. Although that leaves me trying desperately to rationalise mutation etc. but that’s a separate issue *g*

Questions:

1. Did you see the lads of the episodes?


2. What did and didn’t work for you?


3. How did the treatment of the supernatural work for you?


4. What do you think about the ending?


5. Can you suspend disbelief to gloss over the plot holes? Or do they annoy you? Did you see any plot holes? *g*

Discuss.

Comments

[milomaus.livejournal.com]

I see the Lads so totally in this story, it's amazing.
I love the banter, the snarkiness, the love. The way they finally get together is wonderfully mapped out, there's enough going on to suspend it but not too much to make it boring.
I love the little sentences that say so much, like the tiny one thrown right in the middle of totally different things, where Bodie regrets that Doyle won't share his bed tonight.

The ending where Doyle finds Bodie and they talk about one thing but in the end ghey both know they were really talking about sth. totally different...love!

The supernatural, or!not? part I didn't like. It's just not Pros.
And then there are the paragraphs where they look at each other and then there's the descreption of what either one sees. So poetic and lovely and with loads of details, that's just SO unrealistic, especially for the Lads. Doesn't fit.

All in all I really, really like the story, I try to ignore the supernaturalornot part and I skim the descriptions. And I enjoy them immensely!
Thank you for reccing this, I had so much fun reading it again!

[murphybabe]

I agree with so much of what you say! You're so right about the little sentences, and the way that EW shows their love rather than telling us. I was interested in what you said about the descriptions of what they see and how that's not Pros for you. Some of the description was a bit too much for me, like the bit about night coming down like a broody hen (or something similar - I can't find the exact quote right now). But like you I can gloss over the descriptive bits exactly like I gloss over the plot holes and the other bits I don't like, so in the end it comes down to a fic that I like and re-read.

Thanks for commenting - glad you enjoyed the rec!

[firlefanzine.livejournal.com]

I'm not yet ready... :-(

Partially because I don't like supernatural stuff.
But so far there are lovely 'understated' Bodie/Doyle moments!

[murphybabe]

I hope you're enjoying it despite the supernatural stuff? Particularly for those 'understated' Bodie/Doyle moments! The bit I loved was the banter at the start when Murphy was trying to wind the lad up and they turned it round on him. Great!

[potztausend.livejournal.com]

It's a long time ago I read the story and I didn't remember the title, but as you wrote "dog breeder" I recognized it at once ;-).

I don't remember much details (it was something with silver and paper money and the dog at the window in the flat), but I remember I liked the way the men were acting and talking, and I liked the way the author created the plot. Sometimes she mentioned things in the middle of the story which were important at the end of the story, that was quite a good idea.

I don't like AU very much, but in this story there was enough of the lads in it, otherwise I would have stopped reading. Thanks for the rec!

[murphybabe]

That's how I felt about the plot and the lads - there was enough to keep me going, plus I really like EW as an author. Glad you enjoyed it!

[anna060957.livejournal.com]

RL giving me only a matter of minutes to respond, but I did make time to re-read this. Ellis Ward is one of my very favourite authors and pretty much all she writes gets the thumbs up from me.
1. Did I see the lads - totally. And especially the ending with Bodie trying very hard to be sensible and mature, but failing miserably and showing his sensitive, frightened little boy side.
2. They relationship development was the golden cord in the story. Beautifully written with thought and insight - love it!
3. I generally don't read supernatural and so suspension of belief is a given.
4. The ends are tied up - which is what I like in a story - even though not very satisfactorily, but it's supernatural - it's not going to be, is it? I do have the most wonderful picture of Bodie, tied up and waiting for the full moon!
5. The plot holes didn't affect my enjoyment of the story - it's supernatural!

Thanks for review and for reminding me about this story. It's on the Kindle and in the "read again and again" list.

[murphybabe]

I'm completely with you on EW as a favourite author. That's a great phrase of yours - the relationship development as the golden cord in the story. I think you and I are coming from the same place, which is that given that the subject is supernatural, the ending isn't going to be satisfactory. And oh, yes, a trussed-up Bodie...!

Thanks for commenting!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ha - and interestingly enough, this is one of the "supernatural" fics that I rarely re-read, because there's just something about it that isn't... quite. Quite what I'm not sure, because in theory it's many things I do like. Ellis Ward is a solid Pros writer, imho, and one of my favourites. I like her lads - they're them, and they don't get soppy. They're equally tough, just as we see them in the eps - neither is a super-human, and neither is a fainting flower who just wants to be loved. In other words, they're human beings doing a difficult job. As a case-story, the story worked well too - it read rather like an ep to me, perhaps because it drew in lots of things we've seen in the eps - a CI5 guard in the hospital, crowds being all gawk-y when something bad happens, a grass (witness it turns out) who must be found via a pub, etc etc. With added slash. *g*

So whydon't I re-read it as often as I do, for example, Legacy of Temptation? I've just re-read it now, so I'm just going to talk out loud for a bit... *g*

Maybe because it hung so akwardly between being a supernatural story and a case-fic? I really liked the cleverness of the author's misdirection - she built up the tension beautifully with the "dry leaves rustling" that Bodie heard (and then his realisation in bed, where we come to all our scariest realisations, that it'd been wet for the last how-many weeks), and using Russian wolf-hounds, with their implied-tinge of being part of an older, darker time, and the thing of legends (which are surely all based on some truth...). But... but, but, but! The misdirection petered out at the end - it turned out that we were only partly misdirected: there was something supernatural about Francesca Oldman. Being able to turn yourself into a half-hound that can absorb bullets is a supernatural thing - it's not natural, and it gave her powers beyond those naturally by humans. Supernatural. But this was then just dismissed, as if it could only have happened the once, and was therefore completely unconnected with the werewolves of legend. I was left feeling as if there was a huge story still there, but that suddenly we were told not to be interested in it, because it could be scientifically explained. But, but but! Half the interest of the supernatural, for me, is in its potential scientific explanation. If Oldman really was such a human mutation, then there's potentially a huge scientific story there too - and perhaps if Ward had given us just some hint of this, I would have felt more comfortable.

For instance - how do they know she was the only person who could ever do that? Isn't the most concise explanation for the whole thing that a) werewolves do in fact exist; b) Oldman was an example of one; but c) the legend was based on a rare but clearly extant mutation that may well be genetic and would therefore explain the continuance of stories throughout the ages; d) therefore there may well be more such mutations out there, and hadn't someone better be looking into that? What Killing Notes seems to be saying is that there are two completely separate, unconnected things - legends about werewolves, which are completely untrue, and a woman who's able to change herself into a bullet-absorbing giant-hound-thing who just happened to have a heart-attack when Bodie's not-silver bullet hit her. Too much coincidence! Maybe that's what makes me disbelieving - at the end of it all I'm being asked to believe in too many coincidences (the plot-holes you mention), which are only apparent in the explanation at the end - which is also suddenly given in a very Poirot-in-the-library exposition kind of way...

I loved the ending in many ways - but having seen that some of the elements of the werewolf legend seemed to be true, even if the silver bullets weren't, I would have liked a bit more tension at the end when the werewolf's bite was shown to be untrue too, from the author if not from Doyle and/or Bodie. There was, surely, an outside chance that the mutation could have been passed on via blood infection, as various diseases are - and if they don't know what caused the mutation, then it could as well have been blood-borne as anything else!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I'm going to make this a new comment, cos I must have been close to my word-limit with the last one, and this is a slightly different tangent... *g*

My issue with a lot of these fics is that the supernatural has somehow changed how I see ‘my’ lads behaving. I see them as being very grounded in the episodes, so to read about them dealing with the supernatural doesn’t fit my mental image, particularly when they lose their essential character in the story.
What I'm wondering is how much of this issue - and I have a similar issue, actually, though I like supernatural stories! - arises from the supernatural element, and how much from the way the author has characterised the lads regardless of the supernatural element in their story. I could see the lads dealing with each plot you note, without losing the character we see in the eps, it's just tha the author did alter their character. And I think you've picked up on this yourself in comments on the other supernatural stories. I'm going to be really annoying and go back and find them (and I'll try not to cherry-pick!)... *g* For instance:

Doyle abandons Bodie for a succubus (Stolen Soul (http://ci5hq.livejournal.com/236897.html))
You said neither Doyle nor Bodie acts convincingly for me, and I really struggled with this story for just that reason. But Doyle could have been influenced by a succubus and acted as our Doyle from the episodes. Cowley could have reacted believably when Doyle resigned so suddenly and sent Bodie off to find him. Bodie could have gone in with his "you were a copper, you don't believe anything without proof!" Mixed Doubles-canon attitude. The succubus might still have been there, but the lads not so easily convinced that it was supernatural.

suddenly develops out-of-body abilities (Incubus (http://ci5hq.livejournal.com/237543.html))
You liked this one (*g*) - but you did point out If such a thing happened, I think Doyle would be far more freaked out about it.
...Bodie doesn't seem bothered by Doyle's ability at all. No, sorry - no sale here. You also said you didn't believe in astral travel - fair enough - but I wonder if you would have been more accepting of that aspect of the story if the lads had reacted realistically to it. In character?!

is haunted by a demon who has been promised his soul (Legacy of Temptation (http://ci5hq.livejournal.com/238999.html))
You said: This is one of my favourite stories, and your questions address why I enjoy it, I think. I am able to see our B&D in the story. They have a lot of the characteristics that I see in the episodes, and so I am comfortable with them. I rest my case, m'lud! *g*

and is turned into an immortal (Tailor-Made Sequence (http://ci5hq.livejournal.com/236425.html#comments))
Your comment about characterisation in this story was Bodie and Doyle are too lovey-dovey and therefore not Pros. - and I agree to a large extent. But isn't that to do with the characterisation, not the supernatural element? Bodie could have been an immortal who didn't get all lovey-dovey about it, if he'd been our Bodie-from-the-eps...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

So... it's not that I don't believe you don't like supernatural stories (we all have our genre likes and dislikes), but it seems that actually you quite liked supernatural stories where the lads were in character, it's just where the author had written them somehow out of character - not tough enough, not sceptical enough, not enquiring or curious enough - that you were uncomfortable with the stories. And I totally agree with that - I want to see our lads too, otherwise a story doesn't work for me. My hypothesis is that you'd feel relatively comfortable reading a supernatural Pros story with true characterisation (as much as we all agree on their characters, of course!).

So now I'm trying to think of Pros stories that aren't specifically AUs, no matter how good I'd argue that characterisation is, that are basically some kind of investigative story that keep the lads in character and introduce a supernatural element. Annoyingly the only ones I can think of are ones I've written myself - and obviously I can't really use those in the discussion cos you'd likely be too polite to tell me that you don't think I've kept them in character/been believable with them! (Although I wouldn't mind if you did, I'm happy enough with them myself that I'd talk about it - they're Pwnco (http://discoveredinalj.livejournal.com/72383.html), Mollycross (http://discoveredinalj.livejournal.com/157959.html), One Night on Agard Street (http://discoveredinalj.livejournal.com/183578.html#comments)). Oh! Temple of Venus (http://www.thecircuitarchive.com/tca/archive/9/thetemple.html) and Soul Survivor (http://hatstand.slashcity.net/lizzie/soul.html) by Lizzie! The Informer (http://archiveofourown.org/works/125494) by Enednoviel... There must be others... anyway - I'd be curious to know whether you thought those stories held together, if you see the lads as more in character, despite dealing with the supernatural?

[murphybabe]

(and still responding out of sequence)

Yes, but - no, but...

I don't like the supernatural. I was about to write 'in real life' and then got all tangled up because I don't believe in it - but is it that I don't want to believe in it and really I am just hiding my head under the bedclothes because it might be out there really? Well, that's for me to work on privately *g* but I do have a habit of enjoying fic less when it deals with stuff I'm not comfortable with. Here I've focused on the supernatural, but it also applies to death fic, for example. Although I love the way you have written the lads in your fic, I still don't - hmmm... believe in/get/see/enjoy the supernatural elements, which all tend to leave me slightly irritated - because I don't believe in it, full stop. And that's interesting in itself, because any fiction demands the suspension of disbelief - the whole of Pros fandom is based on the eps and therefore isn't 'real'. (I'm not going to go into what is 'real') In addition to this, there are lots of fics that leave me feeling the same way - even when I like the characterisation of the lads (or Cowley, or Murph or anyone else) - there are times when the plot gets in the way of my enjoyment. So I can enjoy your fic, totally believe in the way you've written the lads - and not like the supernatural elements because they don't fit into my (narrow) world view. As a rather gloomy aside, I can feel my mind narrowing and hardening as I get older - I'm turning into my parents :(

Sorry - humungous ramble. I'm going to go off and read the other fic you've listed in your comment because I haven't read it yet. I'll be back soon.

[murphybabe]

This is my second response, after I've been to read the three fics you listed above. No, they don't do it for me at all. I'm still a bit irritated with the intrusion of the supernatural. I liked the stories, and the lads are in character, fair enough, but I was reading with a frown on my face *g*

[murphybabe]

Brilliant! I started to reply to your comment above but then got distracted by this one *g* You're spot on, of course - I can read just about anything if the lads behave as I think they should do *g*

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

1. I most definitely saw the Lads in the story. EW's interpretation of them is always pretty much the way I see them, so how could I not? :-)

2. It all worked for me. I liked that it was a case, though one with supernatural overtones. And since I'm a fan of horror/supernatural, that was just a plus.

3/4. I liked the treatment of the supernatural element, even if it turns out that there wasn't one. But hasn't that been the case for a lot of things? Something that would have been seen as supernatural in the 1900s is commonplace for us today. And there's also the history of its use in such stories as Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue." The murderer is deemed not human, but it's not until the end that we realize that "not human" can, and does, mean "animal."

5. I can't say that I saw any plot holes, not that I remember, anyway. I've read the story several times, though not recently, but I think I would have remembered any glaring ones.