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

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hello! *g*

Painted Angels by Angelfish.
Cover art by firlefanzine

Chapter Ten
Doyle is back in Derby, with Gabe, and as the chapter opens he's staring down his old street asking Gabe "uncertainly" which house was his. A boy on a bike shouts casual homophobia at them, and Doyle stops him sharply and tells him to watch his lip "you little shit". Gabe has already been called "the usual" racist names.

Doyle remembers his house then, but when Gabe tells him his mum still lives there, decides that he doesn't want to see her again. He's visited Gabe's mum, and his father's grave (he came across the Desiderata on someone else's grave, and decided he liked it and would have it on his wall one day), and he and Gabe have gone hiking as they did when they were much younger friends. Doyle talked endlessly about Bodie The way you talk when you're falling in love, he realised.

Doyle goes back to his B&B, and to bed - only to be woken by a knocking on the door. It's Gabe - Cowley has called his mum's house, trying to get hold of Doyle. Bodie has been involved in "an incident" and he's missing, presumed dead. Doyle doesn't believe it, says he'd know "in here", as sure as Gabe knows God. Gabe helps him hire a car and gives him money so that he can get back to London fast, and just before Doyle leaves, he kisses him "mouth, open wide in silent passion" on his lips.

So... what d'you think? *g*

Comments

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I dunno - this is short, but there are an awful lot of non-Doyle things, for me.

I can't imagine him forgetting the house that he lived in for 17+ years of his life - not only was he old enough when he left, but he's got a good memory for things, and if he didn't then he'd have struggled in the police. Plus he's been to Gabe's house, which was only ten houses away, so surely...!

I can't really imagine him deciding not to visit his mum, since he's gone all the way to Derby. The Doyle we see in the eps is pretty compassionate. I can get past it, because she didn't stand up for him against his dad, but... still, I think he'd go. If nothing else, to make sure that she's okay, especially since there's a boarded up window in her house.

He's far too uncertain and submissive in this chapter too, except perhaps with the boy on the bike. That sentence in the first paragraph - "Gabe," he says uncertainly, "Which one was mine?" Then later "he feels his guts clench" when Gabe suggests he visit his mum, and later wakes up "whispering [Bodie's] name". When Gabe tells him Cowley's phoned his mum, Doyle "subsides onto the bed", and Gabe holds both his hands and tells him "You're going to have to be brave" (as if he was six years old!) Then it's Gabe that tells him what to do, to get dressed while he gets a hire car, and Gabe who gives him money for it (again, as if he was a kid rather than someone who's probably got a credit card by now!)

I mean, I know it was all supposed to be very traumatic, but... it just seemed like too much. Where's the bolshy, defiant Doyle that we know and love (and who was set up for us, too, in the Prologue)?

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

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[a4aiz.livejournal.com]

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[macklingirl.livejournal.com]

I must admit this chapter threw me out of the story. It is like you said in you comment, I can't imagine that Doyle doesn't remember the house he lived in. And I don't like all the whimpering and weeping. The Doyle I know from the eps and from other stories is a hard Doyle with a soft core, but the Doyle we see here is a very soft Doyle with an even softer core.

Sometimes it feels as if he is schizophrenic, but then he wouldn't have made it through the police or become a CI5 agent. I don't know why the author made him so unsure of himself. I hope she didn't reflect anything of herself into Doyle.

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

I think we're in danger of reading too much into the statement by Doyle that he can't believe Bodie's dead. Surely he's saying it in the same vein as someone saying ' he can't possibly be dead, I would know !' i.e. he doesn't mean it literally but is expressing his shock and hope against hope that Bodie's *not* dead. And likening it to Gabe's faith in God shows that it *is* just Doyle's faith rather than something more secular like any claim to knowledge or proof.