***SPOILER WARNING! If you haven't read Murder on Parade by Donald Bain yet, and you don't want to know what happens, then don't read this post until you're finished! Consider yourself warned! ***
In Postcard #5 I addressed the episode early in the last MSW book, Panning for Murder, in which Jessica was held at knifepoint by an obviously deranged person that had absolutely no connection with the main plot of the book. Now Murder on Parade has come out, and once again, relatively early on, there is an episode involving yet another deranged individual (drug-addled, this time, instead of mentally ill) wielding a knife who has absolutely no connection with the main plot of the book. Is it just me, or do I spot a trend?
It's true that unlike the questionable scene in Panning for Murder, the attempted mugging scene does serve some purpose in the larger scheme of the book. It helped define the character of Dr. Boyle (while at the same time reassuring the reader that he is, in fact, a real doctor), and gave Rick Alcott a chance to demonstrate that there's still a lethal G-man behind that unassuming exterior. But was all the bloodletting necessary?
The fact that Seth was seriously injured was, it turned out, irrelevant to the larger question of whether or not he would retire from practicing medicine in Cabot Cove - the theme of the otherwise very effective (and moving) B plot. It gave Jessica a chance to meet Dr. Boyle up close and personally, but she'd already met him in Chapter 1 and formed an opinion of him long before that. Yes, I supposed we all got the opportunity to see what a jerk Boyle was when he self-promoted himself after helping Seth, but we knew he was a jerk anyway, so I don't know that this was necessary. The mere fact that the attack occured at all underscored the point that Cabot Cove is changing - Seth didn't need to get slashed to prove that point. And as it turned out the punk didn't have any connection to Lennon Diversified or the rest of the A plot in any way, a fact that puts him into the same category as the knife wielding maniac in Panning.
Coincidence? I'm not sure.
