Pros Novel Read-Along - Painted Angels by Angelfish - Chapter One

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Yeay, it's time for our weekly chat about the Pros Novel Read-Along chapter! We're on:

Painted Angels by Angelfish.
Cover art by firlefanzine

Chapter One

Chapter One opens with a sharp, snappy statement: William Bodie - too tough for the SAS. This chapter is mostly from Bodie's point of view (with interludes from Cowley's pov, from Doyle's and even from Murphy's). He's involved in both being recruited to CI5 and training recruits in CI5, and we meet him tutoring them with guns on a range, but the emphasis in the chapter is on why he's really there. Despite the fiction of being seconded to CI5 from the SAS, he has in fact been thrown out - his old boss, Robert Marsh, won't take him back if he can't make it in CI5, although he's convinced Cowley to take him on rather than simply discharging him.

Bodie, it turns out, killed one too many people who shouldn't have had to die while he was in the SAS, and Marsh is finding it hard to justify things any more. The most recent was a man who had already surrendered - others have included suspects in holding cells.

The trouble is, Cowley finds, Bodie has brought his old ways to CI5 as well - he also has a suspect dead in a holding cell after Bodie has finished interrogating him. Cowley got the information he wanted, so he doesn't simply get rid of Bodie either, but Bodie's got one last chance - and a punishment. He's being demoted to simply another recruit, no more "semi-tutorial role", and he will have to accept being partnered with one of the other recruits at the end of the training.

Bodie of course, is not happy - he doesn't think much of the recruits, and certainly not DS Doyle, who started out in art school, moved onto the Met and then got his partner shot, so that he worked alone after that, and worked hard at moving up through the ranks (so now we know what happened to Doyle in between the Prologue and turning up in CI5!) "Bodie knows the type. Activated by perceived injustice, on a solo mission to set the world to rights." He has to concede that Doyle's a decent shot, though, and as Bodie's "a good teacher" he sees that although he's an excellent shot, Doyle's not used to semiautomatic weapons, and needs to adjust his stance to avoid the worst of the recoil. He steps up behind him, and reaches around...

...and is promptly blocked from doing so, Doyle using a combat move that Bodie's never seen before. He "doesn't like being crept up on". Bodie asks permission to touch him this time, and with a slight correction Doyle is able to avoid the recoil as well as shoot perfectly. Doyle, meanwhile, is finding that something he's done many times before, as both trainee and trainer, is having a strange effect on him this time - he's aware of "the firm pectorals, whisper of six-pack down his spine". He manages to control it though, including when Bodie pushes at him, about whether he's ever had to shoot people as well as targets (five, but none killed) and whether his broken cheekbone bothers him. In fact, Doyle gets in the last word, and it's Bodie who's left feeling thrown.

Finally, we see Bodie confronting Murphy, and it turns out that they were mates and lovers in the SAS, and joined CI5 together - "when they decided to try for Cowley's outfit" (?But we've been told Bodie was sent off on secondment, so ?). Murphy is rejoining his old mountain rescue squad, and he suggests that Bodie moves with him - but Bodie won't, as he knew he wouldn't, and Murphy confesses that one of the reasons he's going is that Bodie's violence has got too much for him as well. Bodie tries to convince him with one last blow job, and blocks his way out of the room, falling to his knees - but Murphy is stronger-willed than that, and gently deflects him. Things are over between them, Bodie has become "cruel. Unmanageable".

Murphy leaves Bodie on his knees in the empty squad room, "steps around him and out".

And that's where we're left at the end of Chapter One! A quick reminder - no spoilers for later chapters in the novel please, if you've read ahead. Otherwise - have at it in the comments! *g*

Comments

RE: Part 2

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hee - exhausted!

but I think I do see fragments of Bodie in this story, even at this early stage e.g. loyalty to a friend; not finding verbal communication very easy but expressing himself physically; some kind of attachment/honour to the army; some kind of respect for Cowley
Yeah, I see some of those I guess, but for me they're disbalanced (it's a word now!) against his over-brutality... Although perhaps it's having more of an impact on me because I have to read and then pause and think about it and then wait for a week before I can read the next chapter! If I just read on as usual, I'd find out whether he redeems himself, and I'd feel better about it more quickly - but as it is, I have to wait! And think! *g* Whose idea was this..?!

He *is* violent but it’s more a case of losing his temper whereas canon Bodie is pretty much in control of his violence
That's just why I'd find Doyle more frightening, I think - a temper can't be controlled, whereas Bodie is in control (in the eps - I'm not convinced in this fic!)

Bodie’s face actually darkens with anger but he just about manages to contain himself and yet it’s no less deadly and terrifies me which Doyle’s temper never does. I suppose I’d always hope that Doyle is open to reason whereas I’m not sure Bodie’s version of reason would correspond with mine!
Hmmn, I guess we're just different here then, because Doyle's temper scares me much more. I'd rather face someone who can contain themselves than someone who can't any day - and I don't see Doyle's temper as something that can be reasoned with. When he's his usual self, then reason all the way, but when he's cross about something and about to throw someone from a high building..?! Give me Bodie's control, right then! *g*

And talking of Sebastian, there’s is a story by her which I can’t find and can’t remember the title of, where the lads have got someone in custody and they torture him purely for sadistic reasons. It’s horrible, pointless and I just don’t see them here
Oh, do you mean Helen Raven's (Wild Horse's) Technique (http://www.oblique-publications.net/archives/paeanvi/technique.pdf)? Because I agree with you...

All of this, and I guess I had the lads killing someone in relatively cold blood in If There be Werewolves and Vampires (or so I was told at the time), so... maybe we just have to come to our own justifications...

If Cowley shoots people in the back who aren’t even threatening his life then he can’t really expect different standards from the men beneath him.
In theory he can't, but I'm not sure that he doesn't... Although I suppose maybe the equivalent is the lads shooting someone they think is threatening their life at the time - when Cowley wants them brought in alive. So maybe, because he forgives them ultimately...

RE: Part 2

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Oh, do you mean Helen Raven's (Wild Horse's) Technique? Because I agree with you...

Oh, well done! For years I’ve been thinking it was Sebastian so no wonder I couldn’t find it.


but when he's cross about something and about to throw someone from a high building..?! Give me Bodie's control, right then! *g*

Thinking on this again....I think we're doing Doyle a disservice.... it’s not as if he walked up to someone and in a temper threw them off a building, surely he’s too disciplined for that and acted in self defence rather than from any loss of temper? Given that they were on a narrow balcony and in the middle of a fight for survival, it was the rational and sensible thing to do. And it was a similar situation on the scaffolding in A Hiding to Nothing. (It’s probably in the CI5 training manual: when in doubt throw your assailant over the nearest balcony).

That's just why I'd find Doyle more frightening, I think - a temper can't be controlled, whereas Bodie is in control (in the eps - I'm not convinced in this fic!)

But I’m familiar with tempers – children have them - they’re recognisable, out in the open and show you’re human. Bodie might be in control but we don’t know what’s underneath that control and the not knowing (its potential) is menacing and intimidating. Take that scene with Kathy towards the end of Hunter-Hunted – he barely touches her but his actual physicality is threatening. (It reminds me of a scene I once saw in a documentary about Saddam Hussein where he very quietly orders some henchman to ‘round up and separate’ a group of enemy combatants they’d captured. It sent a shiver down my spine.

Boom boom....

RE: Part 2

[jat-sapphire.livejournal.com]

I find that scene in Hunter, Hunted terrifying.

RE: Part 2

[siskiou.livejournal.com]

Me, too!
And Bodie goes quietly off the rails in Wild Justice. He looks perfectly reasonable on the surface, but is in fact not.
With Doyle, we'd know what's bothering him, and he accepts help.
Bodie hides it all.

Re: Part 2

[jat-sapphire.livejournal.com]

That's the closest I see to the Bodie in Ch 1. But then there are all the other episodes

RE: Re: Part 2

[siskiou.livejournal.com]

I agree.
Bodie is not easy to figure out.

RE: Part 2

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Wild Justice is probably the closest thing to convincing me that Bodie could do serious mayhem if he wanted to - but even then, when it came down to it, he didn't. He watched King Billy in the pub, and presumably had tracked him down, but the worst he did was take his anger out on his car door. Then he tracked him to the motorbike trials, but he took Doyle with him then. It was Doyle getting mad with him and leaving that meant Bodie was on his own, not Bodie's choice to go after King Billy alone - "with a little help from my friends", he assumed, until Doyle disabused him of that idea.

Then in the fight in the woods, it's what S2k said above about things being in the heat of the moment - Bodie's fighting for his life because he's outnumbered. Would he have broken King Billy's neck? I'm not convinced that he wouldn't have flipped him around somehow and just had him out cold if Cowley hadn't shown up just then.

And even before all that, he when to Shusai to work out what to do. Shusai gave him the metaphor of just destroying something with sudden violence, but Bodie didn't actually do that, either. Maybe he thought he could - but he didn't ever try to get King Billy on his own and just kill him in his sleep or something, which would have been much simpler (given SAS skills) than what he actually did do...

So I dunno - I'm still not seeing anything that makes me believe he's the kind of person who'd kill a surrendered man, or coldly beat people to death in holding cells...

RE: Part 2

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I'm never really convinced that Bodie's doing any more than play-acting in that scene - it's a bit melodramatic for me. Which isn't to say that if I'd been Kathy Mason I wouldn't have been in fear for my life, but more in an I've-been-caught-and-can-expect-no-mercy way rather than really thinking Bodie would murder her husband and then herself...

RE: Part 2

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it *is* a bit dramatic. I'm not sure Lewis Collins always hit the right note in his 'anger' scenes, or reached it too quickly! e.g. I always found the scene from Man Without a Past where he bursts into the accountant's house, running into every room looking for him a bit ridiculous.

RE: Part 2

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not the only one!

RE: Part 2

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

surely he’s too disciplined for that and acted in self defence rather than from any loss of temper
I suppose you can argue that it's no less uncontrolled than shooting someone in a fight,and granted it's effective (!), but I didn't entirely like Tony's chances in Involvement until Bodie pulled Doyle off, and that wasn't a fight. And I'm sure there are other moments where I've been worried about what Doyle would do, though naturally I can't think of them right now!

But I’m familiar with tempers – children have them
Yeah, but so do adults - and they quite often end in death and the newspapers, or at least severe beatings. Do I think Doyle would go that far? Probably not, but it doesn't mean that level of uncontrolled violence (until someone's able to control themselves) doesn't frighten me! And i'm not sure that a victim of domestic violence, say, would appreciate the idea that it "shows you're human"!

that scene with Kathy towards the end of Hunter-Hunted – he barely touches her but his actual physicality is threatening
Yeah, but the thing is, I never believe that he'd actually do it, not in cold blood. I'm more chilled there by the idea that Cowley really would sit back and let him kill someone - I don't believe that Bodie would in that scenario, but I believe that Cowley might, if he thought it was the best solution to something... And look what happens when Bodie's out to get May-Li, who actually did shoot Doyle, several times. Bodie was all cold-revenge then ("For Christ's sake, who did it Ray?") but when it came to it, he didn't go through with it. He could have stared May-Li down while she died, or just left her dumped there as his revenge, but he didn't.

I suppose it all comes down to the different things that scare us about people! Not that Doyle scares me, but I'd be just as wary of him as I would be of Bodie, for slightly different reasons...

RE: Part 2

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

But I’m familiar with tempers – children have them

eah, but so do adults - and they quite often end in death and the newspapers, or at least severe beatings.

Do I think Doyle would go that far? Probably not, but it doesn't mean that level of uncontrolled violence (until someone's able to control themselves) doesn't frighten me! And i'm not sure that a victim of domestic violence, say, would appreciate the idea that it "shows you're human"!

But do you not think that losing your temper is a fairly natural/human characteristic? And domestic abuse is such a minefield, so much of it is a sustained, premeditated form of control as opposed to a a sudden loss of temper and where there is violence from temper it's often fuelled by drugs or alcohol, so it's almost a different class of behaviour from that shown by Doyle.

that scene with Kathy towards the end of Hunter-Hunted – he barely touches her but his actual physicality is threatening
Yeah, but the thing is, I never believe that he'd actually do it, not in cold blood.

That's the thing, I didn't know for certain!

I'm more chilled there by the idea that Cowley really would sit back and let him kill someone

I agree and looking so avuncular!

. And look what happens when Bodie's out to get May-Li, who actually did shoot Doyle, several times. Bodie was all cold-revenge then ("For Christ's sake, who did it Ray?") but when it came to it, he didn't go through with it. He could have stared May-Li down while she died, or just left her dumped there as his revenge, but he didn't.

I agree (again!) and that's why I find him so fascinating and more complicated than he first appears to be.

I suppose it all comes down to the different things that scare us about people! Not that Doyle scares me, but I'd be just as wary of him as I would be of Bodie, for slightly different reasons...

It *is* subjective.